Home
| Search
| Now Playing
| News
| My Movies
| Games
| Boards
| Help
| US Movie Showtimes
| Top 250
| Register
| Recommendations
| Widgets
Box Office
| Index
| Trailers
| Jobs
|
IMDbPro.com - Free Trial
| IMDb Resume
Copyright © 1990-2008
IMDb.com, Inc.
Terms and Privacy Policy under which this service is provided to you.
An 
company.
Advertise on IMDb.
License our content.
Own the rights?
Buy it at AmazonMore at IMDb Pro Discuss in Boards Add to My Movies Update Data
Quicklinks
Top Links
trailers and videosfull cast and crewtriviaofficial sitesmemorable quotesOverview
main detailscombined detailsfull cast and crewcompany creditstv scheduleAwards & Reviews
user commentsexternal reviewsnewsgroup reviewsawardsuser ratingsparents guiderecommendationsmessage boardPlot & Quotes
plot summaryplot synopsisplot keywordsAmazon.com summarymemorable quotesFun Stuff
triviagoofssoundtrack listingcrazy creditsalternate versionsmovie connectionsFAQOther Info
merchandising linksbox office/businessrelease datesfilming locationstechnical specslaserdisc detailsDVD detailsliterature listingsNewsDeskPromotional
taglines trailers and videos posters photo galleryExternal Links
showtimesofficial sitesmiscellaneousphotographssound clipsvideo clipsIMDb user comments for
Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942) More at IMDb Pro »
9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Well worth seeing and preserving, 29 October 2001
Author: D.S. Bertolotti (dbertolo@kettering.edu) from flint mi
Although another of the "common folk against Nazi invasion and occupation" films, this one is better than most. The acting on all levels ranges from good to superior. The plot is complete and dynamic, and the technical elements, like music and setting, are extremely good. Amazingly, the accomplishments of Norway's underground during World War Two are more dramatic than those portrayed in the film. In addition to sabotage, the underground was able to cross and recross the Swedish border, many times to save Nordic Jews. In this instance, reality exceeds the fictional world of the movie industry. This is a well written dramatic film, well worth seeing and preserving!
6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Solid but somewhat overlong morale-booster, 24 September 2007
Author: TrevorAclea from London, England
With a story by Hornblower creator C.S. Forrester and a screenplay by future doorstop novelist Irwin Shaw, 1942's Commandos Strike at Dawn is a solid but overlong wartime propaganda picture that benefits from a good location (Canada standing in for Norway, giving it a similar feel to parts of 49th Parallel), a strong cast (an understated Paul Muni, Ray Collins, Lillian Gish, Cedric Hardwicke and the ever likable Robert Coote among them, while Alexander Knox does double duty as a cold Nazi and the voice of the commandos' padre delivering a pre-raid sermon) but ultimately just takes too long to get where its going. Certainly the commando raid itself is a long time coming and not particularly excitingly mounted despite obvious extensive cooperation from the Canadian armed forces, although the last few minutes are almost staged as a pure western with commandos and Nazis instead of cowboys and Indians. En route it understandably overplays the acts resistance for morale-boosting purposes, but it the first half is elevated by some of the always-undervalued director John Farrow's typically complicated but unostentatious long tracking shots. For classical music buffs, Igor Stravinsky's Four Norwegian Moods was based on his rejected score for the film, replaced here by a more overtly stirring Oscar-nominated effort by Louis Gruenberg and an uncredited John Leipold.
5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
A good film, 5 February 2006
Author: skipper2-1 from Canada
The film was particularly interesting for me as my father was stationed at the Canadian/RAF base in 1942 on Vancouver Island. He mentioned how gracious the star's were and that they took the time to visit the lads who were busy flight training. I have recently read an old RAF magazine called (The Patrician)about director, John Farrow and actor Paul Muni being livid after a British extra ruined a battle scene by laughing hysterically in front of the camera. The area of the secret German camp is actually a military/civilian firing range and is still active today. A set of over grown cement stairs that the Commando's used as they struggled up a steep bank can still be seen in the beautiful Saanich Inlet from the water 64 years later.
4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Little known WWII film about Norway's resistance to the Nazis..., 21 February 2008
Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.
Columbia delivered an interesting war propaganda film during WWII and COMMANDOS STRIKE AT DAWN, with Canada substituting for the Norwegian coastline. Although a little overlong and slowly paced at the start, it builds interest about midway and then never lets up being an absorbing war melodrama.
PAUL MUNI is a Norwegian fisherman who flees Norway after a witnessing a cold-blooded killing and then returns from Britain to take on the Nazis as a resistance fighter. The romantic angle has him in love with the Admiral's daughter, ANNA LEE.
The story opens in the blissful peacefulness of a Norwegian village, circa 1939 where Muni and Lee are enjoying the pleasantries of a wedding party and it soon becomes apparent that the scriptwriter Irwin Shaw spends too much time setting up the growing romance between Muni and Lee under John Farrow's leisurely direction. One can only hope that the pace of the story will quicken once the drums of war start beating and the Germans have started their invasion of surrounding countries.
Muni is understandably upset when he witnesses the murder of a young fisherman and the aftermath of a brutal beating by one of the townsmen (RAY COLLINS), and when he sees what the German invaders (led by Alexander KNOX) are doing to his village and that his young daughter (ANN CARTER) is being taught at school to hate non-Germans. On the debit side, LILLIAN GISH, as Collins' wife, has little to do but look worried. Stalwart ROD CAMERON is improbably cast as a Lutheran pastor who has to stand by while a young man is shot by a firing squad.
It takes a good forty minutes into the story before the resistance tactics start to kick in and Muni begins his vengeful acts against the Nazis. A scene involving Muni hiding in a well with his small daughter while the Nazis search his home is especially well handled. Muni's escape to England is the highlight of the story, a suspenseful scene involving one of the six men who is willing to betray them to the Nazis but whose plan has to be foiled by Muni's quick thinking action.
In England, Muni renews his relationship with the Admiral's daughter and the story moves toward a satisfying, if predictable, conclusion. All the performances are first rate, and after a slow start, the picture builds suspense, especially throughout the last half of the film dealing with the escape from Norway. The final skirmish at the airfield with the British taking the Nazis by surprise is as well staged as any action sequence in war movies of this era.
Not the best resistance story I've ever seen, but it's worthwhile for some very moving scenes and Muni's fine, understated performance as the determined Norwegian leader.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Commandos Invade Norway, 20 February 2008
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
In Commandos Strike At Dawn, Paul Muni is a Norwegian fisherman who does not like what the Nazis have brought in occupying his country. After a murder he resolves to leave Norway and do something about it.
As Eric Toreson, Muni has his most stoic role with the exception of Benito Juarez. But his facial expressions and the controlled anger in his voice tell the story than a lot theatrics.
It's unfortunate that a better story could not be utilized for a man of his talents. I'm still struggling over the idea that before the war an admiral of the Royal Navy, Cedric Hardwicke together with his daughter Anna Lee, are visiting Muni's village. It certainly doesn't look like a vacation spot or that she would take up with Muni who was certainly beneath her in the European class system.
A year later Warner Brothers produced The Edge of Darkness also about the Norwegian resistance which starred Errol Flynn. Now Flynn was in no way in Muni's class as an actor, but as an action hero he certainly filled the bill.
Lillian Gish is in this film as the wife of Ray Collins who is picked up for his anti-Nazi views and tortured. For someone of her talents, she's given little to do.
Western fans will recognize B picture cowboy actor Rod Cameron in the role of the Lutheran parson of the village. George MacReady is the village school teacher in one of the few sympathetic roles he ever had on screen.
Doing double duty is Alexander Knox as the Nazi captain among the occupiers of the village. You can also easily recognize Knox's voice as the unseen parson blessing the British commandos as they embark on a raid near Muni's village.
It's typical World War II propaganda and if it weren't for the quality of the cast Commandos Strike At Dawn would barely be a blip on the nostalgia radar.
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Not as good as EDGE OF DARKNESS (1943), but still entertaining..., 21 February 2008
Author: Peter Andres from Petersburg, Vasaria
Before William Woods' well-written novel THE EDGE OF DARKNESS was brought to the screen by Warner Bros. in 1943, John Farrow directed this interesting yet routine World War II propaganda film about courageous Norwegians under the heels of the Nazis for Columbia Studios a year earlier. The film lives up to its title—British and Norwegian commandos invade Norwegian soil in order to destroy a secret Nazi airfield—so it's worth watching.
Paul Muni delivers a solid performance as a kind Norwegian fisherman who plots to destroy the Nazi oppressors. The supporting characters, however, are cardboard cutouts compared to the complex characters in EDGE OF DARKNESS. Ray Collins plays a political gentleman who is tortured by the Nazis for his anti-Nazi views, Ann Carter (who later delivered a beautiful performance in 1944's THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE) plays Muni's little daughter, Sir Cedric Hardwicke plays a blustery admiral of the Royal Navy, Robert Coote plays a charming English soldier, and Lillian Gish is wasted in the cardboard role of Collins' wife. Alexander Knox plays the one-dimensional role of the Nazi commandant of the village, although Helmut Dantine would play a similar yet more complex role in EDGE OF DARKNESS. However, the urbane George MacReady, who regularly played villains in films like GILDA (1946) and Farrow's THE BIG CLOCK (1948), plays a good guy here for a change. Anna Lee, despite her fine acting in other films like HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (1941) and HANGMEN ALSO DIE! (1943), is somewhat cloying as Muni's love interest and Hardwicke's daughter. It's too bad that John Farrow, who was married to the lovable Irish actress Maureen O'Sullivan at the time, didn't cast his real-life wife in the role instead.
Farrow's direction of actors seems only competent yet his direction of cinematography, editing, and action scenes are superb. William C. Mellor's black-and-white cinematography, while not groundbreaking like Sidney Hickcox's imaginative cinematography in EDGE OF DARKNESS, is beautifully lit and uses tracking shots for maximum effect. The Canadian location shots of Vancouver Island help increase the film's authenticity. The editing is fast-paced and is similar to that of a Warner Bros. film at the time. The climactic battle on the airfield is awesome and is full of nice explosions of grounded Nazi airplanes and trucks. An interesting fact about the film is that Russian classical composer Igor Stravinsky, who composed the notorious ballet THE RITE OF SPRING (1913), originally composed the film's music score but it was rejected. Instead a saccharine yet Oscar-nominated score was composed by Louis Gruenberg and John Leipold. Stravinsky's unused score was later adapted into the stirring tone poem "Four Norwegian Moods."
However, COMMANDOS STRIKE AT DAWN is typical of the propaganda films that Hollywood churned out at the time. For example, all the German vehicles contain crudely painted swastikas that you would only find in such films. Despite the heavy propaganda overtones and shallow characterizations, this film is worth watching today mainly due its exciting action scenes.
3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
An excellent example of WWII Propaganda films, 17 March 2007
Author: blainefielding from United States
For we amateur historians this early WWII American propaganda film is a treasure for its insights into attitudes about the German conquest of Europe.
Among the first of a long line of American propaganda films, it was actually filmed on Vancouver Island in Canada, because of its similarity to the Norwegian landscape. Real British and Canadian commandos were used to play the soldiers, both British and German. {The British and Canadians who had been at war for over two years were eager to assist the newly arrived Americans becoming involved}. The cast and crew stayed at the famous Empress Hotel in Victoria, about 10 miles from the filming site.
The script was adopted from a story by C.S. Forester, the famous British novelist of naval and maritime stories. The script was done by Irwin Shaw who would become a noted American novelist.
The film is probably too idealistic in its portrayal of good-hearted Europeans rising up against their Nazi conquerors. Only after the war did Europeans concoct an heroic resistance. The vast majority at the time however passively accepted German occupation. And for good reason. The Germans took brutal reprisals against any sign of resistance. Unlike in the movie, most conquered peoples kept their heads down and waited for the Allied armies to save them. Nonetheless, the film probably reassured American audiences that Europeans were eagerly awaiting to help liberate the continent from Nazi oppressors.
Btw, I had the opportunity to discuss the making of the movie with Ann Carter, who at age 6 played "Solveig", the daughter of Paul Muni's character. I have added some of her recollections in the comments section.
Blaine in Seattle, U.S.A.
The only thing new will be a curfew. Anyone caught breaking it will be shot on the spot!, 23 February 2008
Author: sol1218 from brooklyn NY
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
(Some Spoilers) The war between Britain and France with Nazi Germany finally spilled over into neutral Denmark an Norway in the early spring of 1940. It was then when Hitler's troops conquered both those free and neutral country's he and his thugs also awakened the fighting and free spirit of the ancient Vikings represented in the freedom loving Norwegian people.
Widower Erik Toresen, Paul Muni,was anything but a fighting man when the war first began. A nature lover and follower of the fishery, salmon and herring, movements in the North Sea Eric expected to sit out the war and let the others, British USSR and Americans, do the fighting for him. Like most of the people in now Nazi-occupied Norway. It was when the Nazis started to round up and shoot his fellow citizens for such terrible crimes as wanting to be free and staying out after hours, thus breaking the Nazi imposed curfew, that Eric turned over another leaf. It was also when Eric's fellow Norwegian and good friend Gunner Korstad, Richared Darr, was shot by the Nazis for talking and asking, for his freedom, too much that had Eric not only join the resistance movement but killed the German officer who ordered Gunner shot!
Better then your average run-of-the-mill WWII propaganda movie due to the fact that Academy Award winning actor Paul Muni as well as top British actor Cedric Hardwicke, as Admiral Bowen, being in it. The fact that Muni, or Eric Trsesen, was given a British girlfriend Judith Bowen, Lillian Lee, who also happened to be Admiral Bowen's daughter was just a bit too much to take. Eric after some five years of being available after his wife died in giving birth to their daughter Solveig, Ann Carter, couldn't find himself a nice sweet and beautiful Nordic-looking Norwegian girl to get hitched up with!
On the run from the Nazi, for killing a German officer, Eric accidentally comes across a secret German airfield being built on the Norwegian coast. This airfield will provide the Nazis a base, out of the reach of the RAF, to bomb not only Northern Britain but attack and sink British and American convoys loaded with arms and supplies for hard hit and battered, by being invaded by Hitlers armies, Soviet Union. If successful the airfield will end up winning the war for the Nazis and thus enslave, including Norway, the entire free world!
Making his way back to England by boat via the treacherous waters of the choppy and dangerous North Sea, the Norwegians are excellent seamen, Eric and and a number of fellow freedom fighters persuade the British, through his good friend Admiral Bowen, to launch a sneak attack on the German airfield with him, knowing the area as well as the back of his hand, leading the way.
Despite the heavy and heroic action and explosive fireworks on shore with Eric and the British Commandos striking at dawn against the Germans the movie just didn't live up to it's title "Commandos Strike at Dawn". The British Commandos were in fact members of the standing British, and Canadian, army and not wearing the camouflage uniforms and berets of the elite British Commandos. The assault on the Germans, who were caught with their pants down, was staged as a full scale military & navel operation with 150 to 200 capacity landing crafts hitting the beaches. Not with your usual commando rubber dinghies, with a capacity of 8 to 10 men, sneaking up on the what should have been the very alert German troops!
As for the striking in the pre-dawn darkness to catch the heavily armed Germans by surprise the "commando" attack actually took place in what looked like at high noon! The absolute worse time for a sneak and surprise operation like that giving the defending German troops, who for some strange reason were for the most part asleep in their barracks, all the advantage that they needed!
***SPOILER ALERT***Added to the excellent battle scenes we were also given the fact that the attack on the Germans was very personal for Eric. The dirty Nazi swines had his daughter, Solveig, held hostage in the village and it was only up to Eric, and not his fellow commandos, to save her before all the dust cleared. Eric as well as his fellow commandos risking their life, which they didn't really have to with their mission already accomplished, went out in a blaze of glory saving Solveig suffering the most casualties during the entire operation. In Eric's case he ended up giving his people hope for the future in finally ridding their country of the occupying and ruthless Nazis. That is in following the course of action, as a fearless and courageous Norwegian freedom fighter, that Eric despite of his peace-loving nature eventually took.
Add another comment
Related Links