Maybe I missed it, but what happened to Lt. Tonder (Peter Van Eyck), the sympathetic, lonely (or just horny) German soldier? The last thing we see is the girl he likes in the bedroom menacingly holding a pair of long scissors, then we see Tonder heading to the bedroom, closing the door and...
That's it! Nothing about either the girl or Tonder from that point on. Are we supposed to just assume that she killed Tonder, and then either killed herself or was killed by the Germans?
That was what I was wondering too. pretty obvious that, though she seemed to be showing sympathy at one moment, she talked about how much she missed her husband, and this could have been her way of getting revenge against those who stole him. I think its pretty self explanatory. poor guy, and poor woman! both victims of this terrible war.
sharepsmithyyyyy says > That was what I was wondering too. pretty obvious that, though she seemed to be showing sympathy at one moment, she talked about how much she missed her husband, and this could have been her way of getting revenge against those who stole him. I think its pretty self explanatory. poor guy, and poor woman! both victims of this terrible war.I noticed how they tried to make Tonder a more 'sympathetic' German soldier but I wasn't buying and didn't like it. He followed orders and brutalized the people so there was nothing kind about him.
Definitely felt like a scene was cut - also the ending wa somewhat abrupt - although, overall - a very powerful film.
shareThanks, I'm glad it wasn't me and I hadn't missed something. It really seemed strange, considering how when anyone else was killed, they made a big production out of it.
I guess since Tonder was a 'good guy' (but still a German), they didn't want to say any more about him or the girl being killed violently, even if it was off-screen. Maybe it was a censorship thing.
Still an interesting movie, especially as it was based on a Steinbeck book. I particularly liked Cedric Hardwicke's character in how he at least tried to reason with the Norwegians instead of the typical, two-dimensional brutal, movie Nazi. I have to say, they should have figured out sooner that if they refused to work, completely, there was really no need for them. Seems like they could have done the smart thing, went to work, and done a really half-assed job. The blatant, "in-your-face" obstinance, well, what did they expect a conquering army to do?
It was easy to miss because it went by so fast, but in a scene soon after that, a very brief whispered exchange between the Mayor and his wife, she tells him that the young woman has escaped and made it to Sweden. Nothing about her after that, and no mention is made of Lt. Tonder after that either. I wonder if the book tells what happened after she killed him and made her escape.
shareI wonder if the lack of any mention of what happened afterwards was a none-too-subtle way of saying that the Germans didn't much care about those within their ranks who were even the least bit sympathetic to those they had conquered.
In a typical WW2 movie, you'd have thought there'd have been a massive slaughter of townspeople in retaliation for the murder of not only a German soldier, but an officer, as well. Of course, that also diminishes the labor pool for the mines.
Or maybe the implication is that the townspeople were able to dispose of Lt. Tonder's remains so as not to be found. That would kind of explain why the Germans didn't retaliate since they didn't know for certain if Tonder was killed or he had deserted. But they could have at least put it in the movie so the audience wasn't left hanging.
If you listen closely, just after he enters Molly's room and closes the door, you hear a thump, i.e., a body falling to the floor. Probably can be heard better in a movie theater.
shareYeah. I was watching with CC turned on and the [thud] was even captioned.
"Who's running this airline?!"
Cheappleasuress says > If you listen closely, just after he enters Molly's room and closes the door, you hear a thump, i.e., a body falling to the floor. Probably can be heard better in a movie theater.I didn't hear the thud you described but once Molly grabbed the scissors and asked Tonder to come in I knew what was going to happen. I don't know if a scene was edited out but if it was, I didn't mind how it turned out.