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.
