The Day Will Dawn
The Day Will Dawn | |
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Directed by | Harold French |
Written by | Story: Frank Owen Screenplay: Anatole de Grunwald Patrick Kirwan Terence Rattigan |
Produced by | Paul Soskin |
Starring | Ralph Richardson Deborah Kerr Hugh Williams Griffith Jones |
Cinematography | Cyril J. Knowles |
Edited by | Michael C. Chorlton |
Music by | Richard Addinsell orchestrated Roy Douglas |
Production company | A Paul Soskin Production |
Distributed by | General Film Distributors (UK) Paramount Pictures (US) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
The Day Will Dawn, released in the US as The Avengers, is a 1942 British war film set in Norway during World War II. It stars Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Hugh Williams and Griffith Jones, and was directed by Harold French from a script written by Anatole de Grunwald, Patrick Kirwan and Terence Rattigan, based on a story by Frank Owen.[1] The music by Richard Addinsell was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Muir Mathieson.
Plot
Following the
The pair say goodbye and Metcalfe, getting into what he thinks is a taxi, is kidnapped by the Germans and put on board a ship bound for the German port of
Back in Britain as the
Alstad is released and agrees to help Metcalfe to signal to British bombers with torches to guide them in on their raid on it, and Kari and Metcalfe bid a romantic farewell. The signalling is successful and the base destroyed, but Alstad is killed by a German patrol. Metcalfe returns to tell Kari the news, just as Gunter and the Germans take eight random hostages who will be shot if the British spy they are sheltering is not given up. Metcalfe overhears this, and gives himself up. Gunter returns to Kari to try to save her from the firing squad she too will face for sheltering the spy, but she refuses and is locked up with the hostages, though Gunter shows her the kindness of not separating her from Metcalfe. They prepare to die, and the first party for the firing squad are taken out, but then a British commando raid arrives. In the chaos Gunter is shot by the Kommandant as the latter makes a hasty escape, and the hostages are all freed unharmed. The raiders capture the town and its German garrison and then leave almost immediately, taking Metcalfe, Kari, the hostages and their families to safety in England.[4]
Cast
Main source is the BFI.[5]
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Critical reception
Two reviews written in the 21st century were generally positive.
David Parkinson gave the film three out of five stars in the Radio Times, and wrote, "Markedly less restrained than many other British tales of wartime resistance, this well-meaning flag-waver is far more effective than the majority of have-a-go Hollywood movies on the same theme...what sets this apart is a remarkable cast of British stalwarts, not one of whom puts a foot wrong. Special mention should be made, however, of Deborah Kerr, who lends quiet courage to an unrewarding romantic part, and Francis L Sullivan, who makes a most malevolent Nazi".[6]
The reviewer for The Movie Scene rated the film similarly, although finding it "incredibly dated," but went on to say that it, "does feature a good storyline which is well knit together. It is still entertaining and you can see how it would have served its purpose of rallying British audiences back in the 1940s."[7]
References
- Notes
- ^ Allmovie Credits
- ^ This scuffle is reminiscent of a similar stand-off in Casablanca, also released in 1942
- ^ By the Special Operations Executive, though this is unnamed in the film.
- Lofoten Islands. Genuine film footage from the action is incorporated into the sequence.
- ^ The Day Will Dawn. BFI.
- ^ "The Day Will Dawn – review". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 28 September 2017. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ^ "The Day Will Dawn (1942) – review". The Movie Scene.
External links
- The Day Will Dawn at IMDb
- The Avengers at the TCM Movie Database
- The Day Will Dawn at AllMovie