(Frank Borzage, US 1940, 100 min., 35mm)
Immediately after finishing Ernst Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner, its three co-stars — Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, and Frank Morgan — went into production on this anti-fascist statement. Based on the 1937 of the same name by British author Phyllis Bottome, who had moved to Austria with her husband in 1924 and witnessed the rise of the Nazi party, the story centers on a science professor (Morgan), his students, and his family. Fritz (Robert Young) is a fervent adopter of Hitler’s policies, while Martin (Stewart) is reticent to acquiesce to the new situation, and Morgan’s family is caught in the middle, with his adopted sons joining the party, while his daughter pines for Martin and his radical views. The rare Hollywood film that depicted the rise of Nazism in Germany before America’s involvement in World War II, it is also a tragic love story told with delicate detail by master filmmaker Frank Borzage. William Daniels’s camera substitutes Utah and Idaho for the alps while emphasizing the growing dread through subtle lighting.