The Day Will Dawn

1942
6.1| 1h38m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 24 November 1942 Released
Producted By: Paul Soskin Productions
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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Sports journalist Colin Metcalfe is picked for the job of foreign correspondent in Norway when Hitler invades Poland. On the way to Langedal his boat is attacked by a German U-Boat, however when he tells the navy about it they do not believe him and, to make matters worse, he is removed from his job. When German forces invade Norway, Metcalfe returns determined to uncover what is going on and stop the Germans in their tracks.

Genre

Drama, War

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Director

Harold French

Production Companies

Paul Soskin Productions

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The Day Will Dawn Audience Reviews

Linkshoch Wonderful Movie
VividSimon Simply Perfect
Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.
Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Leofwine_draca THE DAY WILL DAWN is a familiar British propaganda picture of WW2, released in 1942 when the war was still in full swing. It has a decent cast to help take your mind off the familiarity and indeed predictability of the plotting. The setting is Nazi-occupied Norway, where British secret agents work undercover in order to bring said Nazis to book. Hugh Williams is a somewhat ineffectual hero but watch out for the dependable likes of Finlay Currie, Roland Culver, Ralph Richardson, Francis Sullivan, and Raymond Huntley. Deborah Kerr's Norwegian accent fails to impress while Valentine Dyall and Walter Gotell have early bit parts as Germans.
Robert J. Maxwell A brisk story of Hugh Williams as a British reporter who plays the horses, knocks about Europe as the war begins, and trades quips and rounds of beer with such colleagues as Ralph Richardson.He's exiled to Norway for his light and careless approach to his duties, but Norway turns into a hot spot when the Germans take it over and build a secret U-boat base. With the help of locals, who include Deborah Kerr, Williams manages to escape but the government sends him back to the village to set up a signal to the bombers that will try to demolish the submarine base.The base is, in fact, destroyed by the raid but Williams and many others are taken into custody and sentenced to be executed. This leads to a few harrowing moments in the jail, while Williams comforts a terrified Kerr. Then the cavalry arrives. Some day the dawn will come again.It's a rather mediocre war-time flag waver. It's not bad; it's just that it's not very polished. The plot, looked at as a whole, resembles the crab nebula of Orion. Britain to Poland to Britain to Norway to Britain to Norway to Britain.Williams is all right as the wisecracking reporter but Deborah Kerr, a truly fine actress, is miscast and undone by her make up. Kerr has a fragile beauty and a tremulous voice. She's always a little frightened in her later movies. (I like that in a woman.) But here she's barely recognizable as an earthy, stalwart Norwegian peasant. I mean it literally when I say "barely recognizable." Her fair hair is bound in curls that twist around each other like a loaf of challah. Her eyelids seem to have been darkened so much that they droop like an alcoholic's, and her lipstick is a glossy obsidian. She was only twenty-one but appears older and, in some scenes, a little debauched. She has one or two poignant moments, though. While exchanging small talk with Williams, awaiting execution in a darkened cell, she suddenly shudders, buries her face against his shoulder, and cries, "I'm AFRAID." So are we all, darling.The sequence in which Williams is parachuted into Norway is short but done with vigor.
Jake British wartime propaganda film in which Hugh Williams plays a British foreign correspondent investigating German U-boat activities in Norway. The disparate elements of the film however, in terms of location, narrative and character, do not seem to have been successfully combined into a cohesive whole. Apart from the Hugh Williams character there is a lack of focus, and the film comes across as episodic and disjointed. Ralph Richardson, for example, is for the most part wasted in a role which despite popping up briefly all over the place, seems to have very little relevance to either plot or theme. Finlay Currie, always worth watching, does well by his part and has the most convincing accent of the piece, but Deborah Kerr sounds as Norwegian as praties. Francis L Sullivan trots out another of his well worn villains.
calvertfan I found the best scenes in this movie to be the ones in which Deborah Kerr was acting. And I'm not even a fan of hers (or I wasn't, before this!) so that must say something about her...it was only about her 5th or 6th role, she was very young, yet she was perfect for the role. The rest of the movie traveled along fairly slowly, but luckily had a few exciting war time scenes, and an outstanding, terrifying, climax. Good for a rainy day, and don't give up on it. 7/10.