Counter-Attack

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.

Counter-Attack, a film celebrating the Russian contribution to the victory of Nazism, earned a place in history for the blacklisting of screen writer John Howard Lawson, member of the Hollywood Ten and a guy who really was a Marxist. He never denied it during his lifetime.

Nevertheless the Russian contribution was certainly real enough and red enough and that's not a political statement either. Paul Muni and Marguerite Chapman play a pair of Russian soldiers who get trapped on the wrong side of the front in a cellar with seven members of the German Army of varying feelings about their leader. Muni and Chapman are on an advance mission to obtain intelligence and they're certain one of their 'prisoners' is an officer in disguise. How to ferret the information from these men is the question.

The film is one claustrophobic exercise and on stage it was done only on the one set of the cellar. It was based on a Russian play Pobyeda and ran under the name Counter-Attack on Broadway during the 1943 season for 85 performances. Morris Carnovsky originated the role Paul Muni has in the film.

Since both sides have no idea who will rescue them eventually it becomes quite a cat and mouse game with Muni and Chapman fighting fatigue. Yet they have a few tricks of their own.

Counter-Attack is a well acted film with Paul Muni under a lot of effective directorial restraint and the ever present helpful hints from his wife Bella. They were one interesting combination, Bella knew her man well and was his best critic. Of course directors getting the idea that they were in charge did not want her around. Harry Cohn got her off the set of A Song To Remember and without her there, the result was Muni's hammiest performance.

Counter-Attack is not a great war film and it got buried during the McCarthy era. Still it's decent enough wartime propaganda and we can view it now with the history of the times in mind.

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.

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.

It's 1942 and the Soviets have fallen back under German attack. The Soviets are secretly building a bridge to launch a counter-attack. They sent paratroopers to help partisans in enemy territory to locate German forces. With intel of impending German reinforcements, they launch a surprise attack. Paratrooper Alexei Kulkov with local guide Lisa Elenko take seven German soldiers prisoners but become trapped under a collapsed building.

This was shown at a time when the Soviets were still Allies. Aside from the war action scenes, this is essentially an one room play. My only concern is that I don't see these characters talk so easily. The writing is definitely trying to be smarter than most. Alexei should definitely force the prisoners to sit down. There is a few things about this that rings a little false. It wouldn't matter as much if this isn't reaching for the higher levels. This is not the standard war movie. It's trying to be more and the little annoyances hurt.