Yes, check the notice atop this board (and every board). IMDb is disabling all its boards, across the site, on Monday, February 20. The last day for posting is Sunday the 19th. The boards aren't being frozen in place -- they're disappearing altogether. So not even these discussions will remain. Terrible and pointless -- everybody is upset.
Before we all sign off, have you see some of the other pro-Soviet films from the 40s? Most are out on DVD and if you haven't seen them I'd recommend them...though a couple are what not only you but I would call "dull"! A sampling:
Song of Russia (MGM 1943). Robert Taylor as an American composer visiting the USSR who's caught in the Nazi attack but of course finds love among the chaos. Taylor denounced this picture after the war and said he only did it as a personal favor to Louis B. Mayer. Taylor, a staunch right-winger who named names in front of HUAC, was proud of the fact that he never turned down a role the studio assigned him. A good company man -- so good he never asked for a raise, and an appreciative Mayer responded by making him the lowest-paid major star in Hollywood. But questioning your bosses is something only a Red would do.
Days of Glory (RKO 1944). Russian guerrilla fighters battle the Nazis. As stilted and unreal a script as any ever written. The picture is mostly remembered today as the film debut of a young actor from the Broadway stage -- Gregory Peck. You must hear him deliver the stirring line: "The kasha is exceptionally good today." He was busy stirring it, you see.
Both those are available from Warner Archives and turn up every so often on TCM. But the one you must see if you haven't is The North Star (1943), Sam Goldwyn's contribution to the war effort, by way of fellow-traveler Lillian Hellman. This movie not only shows us a happy, prosperous collective farm (the village is called the North Star) but features three or four interminable songs that the cast indulges in before the Nazis attack. A good cast: Walter Huston (again!), Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Jane Withers, Farley Granger (his film debut), Walter Brennan, Dean Jagger, and as the lead Nazi, Eric von Stroheim. The first, pre-attack half is excruciating, dull and stupid, but things do pick up once the Germans invade. Von Stroheim is a "civilized" German who hates the Nazis but does their bidding.
This movie was such an embarrassment that after the war Goldwyn not only renounced it but ultimately sold it off to a consortium that heavily edited and revamped it into a movie called Armored Attack, released directly to TV in 1957. This truncated version mutes the pro-Commie stuff and ends with a voice-over about how the characters hoped for a better future but it was not to be under the Soviets, and how we must all keep fighting until people everywhere are free. Yay! The North Star shows up once in a while on TCM too, but it was never available on DVD except in truly abysmal, unwatchable prints until a couple of years ago, when Olive Films released both versions on DVD and Blu-ray. But weirdly, they made the knock-off version, Armored Attack, the primary movie on the disc -- if you look for it, type in Armored Attack -- while the original film, The North Star, is an added feature! But at least both are preserved and in good condition.
All this stuff should be seen once, like a trainwreck. But allow me two more recommendations, not of Hollywood films but Soviet ones. Try to see The Fall of Berlin and The Battle of Stalingrad, both produced by Mosfilm in 1949 for Stalin's 70th birthday. The latter is a meticulous re-creation of the battle (using captured German equipment) and of course shows Stalin as the brilliant strategist behind the victory. But the one to really see is the first, a bizarre, color film that depicts Stalin not only as all-knowing and brilliant but even an expert on giving advice to the lovelorn. The film was hugely expensive and depicts not only the Soviet leadership but the Nazi hierarchy from Hitler on down, as well as Roosevelt (portrayed fairly benignly) and Churchill (seen as a growling hunchbacked dwarf), while a parallel love story unfolds. The finale has Stalin arriving by plane in Berlin at the end of the war, greeted by delirious throngs at the airport, where he reunites the two lovers separated by four years of war, as thousands of people of all nationalities (some fresh from the concentration camps) cheer wildly. In truth Stalin was terrified of flying and arrive in Berlin for the Potsdam Conference months later by train, at night. The movie was screened for him and when it ended of course no one said a word until Stalin spoke. The director was terrified that the dictator wouldn't like it and of what might happen to him if he didn't. But then, Stalin rose, turned to the director and with tears in his eyes took both his hands and said, "That is what I should have done!" He loved it, so everyone was free to breathe and love it too.
Both films are available from International Historic Films (ihffilm.com), which is a great source for German and Soviet propaganda films as well as Allied and other fare, not only from the WWII but WWI and other conflicts, as well as documentaries, historic epics and other kinds of films. Worth a look even if you don't plan to buy. Many very rare and curious titles, all beautifully restored.
Hope to see you before the end! Remember, the last day to post is Sunday, February 19.
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