Counter-Attack

An astringent war film atmospherically shot by Oscar-winning cameraman James Wong Howe with an attention to detail it doubtless owes to its stage origins.

As befits a film scripted by one of the Hollywood Ten, one of the Russians is a noble-looking young woman with a rifle, while the Nazis are an even more than usually devious and shifty bunch. One of the shiftiest is 'the Professor', played by Ludwig Donath, who ironically twice played fellow cast-member Larry Parks' father Cantor Yoelson before they both joined screenwriter John Howard Lawson on the blacklist.

Seldom does a film capture the tone of the moment of significant historical events. This movie indeed does. One of the most dramatic events of World War Two was the counter attack by the Soviet troops against the Nazi invaders. The power of it all is beyond comparison to this very day. This film gives the audience a good account of the action, the drama, and the sense of just how far the Russians would go to drive the German army from its land. Paul Muni is extraordinary, and his acting gives meaning to the theme of this film that "there is no such word as impossible." In this movie, the heroic revenge of the Russians is exceeded only by the terror of it all.

Recently saw this movie on TCM. Very powerful. It concerns a Russian soldier (Paul Muni) and a female resistance agent (well played by Marguerite Chapman, who I'm not familiar with) trapped in a bombed factory (?) with seven Germans. The director has some better known films, including "Four Feathers." Muni is well known. The others appear to be character actors.

It becomes a battle of wills, most of the action taking place in a condensed space -- the small area they are trapped in. But, meanwhile, we also get some excellent shots of the happenings outside in the battlefield and thereabouts. These add a nice touch to the movie, realistically so as well (a sort of newsreel feel in some cases).

The movie has a 1945 publication date but is played basically straight. It is always interesting as well when Russians are the good guys.

Most of "Counter-Attack" takes place in a collapsed factory building in which 2 Russians and 7 Germans are trapped. Ordinarily, in a picture of this type, the action comes to a screeching halt and the film becomes a talkathon. But the story benefits greatly from the presence of Paul Muni, one of America's great actors, as the Russian soldier who is holding the 7 German soldiers captive until rescuers arrive.

The Russians are trying to drive the Germans from Russian soil, and have sent a handful of paratroopers ahead to gather information on troop movements, and the group is trapped after an explosion at a factory doubling as a German messaging outpost. That the film does not perish from Death by Dialogue is a tribute to Paul Muni's superior acting ability as well as an excellent script. If it comes on soon, catch it and see if you don't agree.

During World War II, Hollywood did something they never would have dared do before the war or only a couple years after the war...they made Pro-Soviet movies. In films such as "The North Star" and "Song of Russia", the Russian people are portrayed as noble, decent and, above all, America's friends. Why? Well, because the Soviet Union was an ally of the USA during much of the war...and the films were propaganda pieces aimed as softening the views Americans had of the USSR (which had often been very negative before this). "Counter-Attack" is another of these pro-Soviet films. Now this isn't saying it's bad...but it did serve the purpose of improving American perceptions of these allies.

The plot of this one is very simple. A pair of Russian soldiers are trapped under debris in the basement of a building...and there are about a half dozen Germans trapped with them. Alexei (Paul Muni) has gotten the drop on them...disarming them and taking them prisoner. But he cannot escape...and while they are trapped, he decides to ask these Germans questions, as he has good reason to believe that one of them is an officer in disguise as an enlisted man. But time is working against him, as he cannot sleep or they'll kill him. And, he hopes that his Russian comrades come before the Germans do to rescue them.

This film isn't as wide-eyed and saccharine as the pro-Soviet films I listed above. Instead, it's intelligent without laying the propaganda on too thickly. As a result, it's a very good film...and isn't yet another silly pro-Russian story. The only negative is that the story, at times, tends to be rather talky.