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Thursday, August 17, 2023

MORGENROT / DAWN (1933)

Holding major historical interest simply as the first German film released after the Nazis took power, this WWI story is also well-made and politically/morally complicated.  Whatever did the German public & authorities make of it?  (Herr Hitler at the premiere.)  Strong heroics, noble sacrifice & ultimate failure feature in this WWI U-Boat saga centered around a small German port town proud of the locals in the crew.  A Rah-Rah send-off is quickly followed by easy victory against a British destroyer.  But any celebration premature, tempered by doubt when the sub doesn’t quickly return, the town unaware that tables have turned thanks to a wily British trick.  The enemy flying false colors on an old sailing frigate to fool chivalrous Germans strictly following all international rules of war.  (Take note Germans: We’ll not make such gallant mistakes again!)  Smashed by a fast moving enemy ship with correct coordinates, the few surviving U-crew now stuck in a damaged boat with near depleted oxygen and not enough rescue suits.  Working with something of an All-Star German cast, director Gustav Ucicky gets quite exceptional effects (real footage and seamlessly handled optical printer dissolves) while tight sub interiors (note the 1.2:1 frame ratio*) and control panels in this DAS BOOT/’81 precursor fully up to Stateside technical levels.  Even the love stories back home nicely integrated.  A fascinating watch.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *That narrow frame ratio (1.2:1) an artifact of putting the sound track on the film strip where it took up about 10% of the space before someone figured out how to letterbox the image back to 1.37:1.  (Recent use of this oddly squarish shape a bit artsy-fartsy.  But using it for a submarine’s ultra-tight corridors has a sort justification to it.)  The nearly square image still in use @ FOX when John Ford told the other side of this story two years earlier in THE SEAS BENEATH/’31. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-seas-beneath-1931.html

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