Watch The Mortal Storm For Free

Great Film overall

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is a surprisingly modern and almost shockingly valid film still today after 75 years, since all the arguments are as important today as in 1940 and perhaps even more so than ever. It's about the transience from a democracy to an autocracy, how it changes the very core of society and plunges people into an entirely different mentality turning many of them into aliens and forcing them into exile, if they want to escape the brainwash. It's an upsetting story extremely efficiently told with marvellous photography, especially in the final scenes way up in the Alps, and it's a joy to see James Stewart so young and fresh and completely himself in total honesty. Margaret Sullavan has done better in other films, especially "Three Comrades" two years earlier, another German story on a novel by Remarque, but no one is falling short of perfect. Frank Borzage's direction celebrates perhaps its greatest triumphs in this vitally important film so much ahead of its time, since it clearly sees through all what Germany actually was about long before America entered the war. This is actually a timelessly important film unmasking the very essence of autocracy as a very efficient warning against it for all times - it could be about any autocracy. Perhaps it's a little dramatized and exaggerated, it all happens in 1933 while it's still winter, while it really depicts the whole development in Germany up till 1939, but that's a minor detail, and the film would have been less efficient without the exaggerations - the message is the important thing, and it remains a vitally important one for all ages.

I must admit I only just saw this film for the first time and I can't figure out why this incredibly important and powerful film has been relegated to rare showings and obscurity. Especially with the creeping tyranny of intolerance overtaking our world today, this film must be seen - as the cautionary tale it is. In spite of the fact it is ostensibly about the rise of Nazism in Germany, it is really about intolerance - and it dramatically reveals how quickly a civilized country becomes brainwashed and murderously hateful toward those who don't step in line. What a powerful statement - and a great film as well, with incredibly taut performances by James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan (who were so great together in The Shop Around The Corner, released the same year, 1940) and a superb cast of fine actors including Frank Morgan (also from The Shop Around The Corner by the way, as well as The Wizard of Oz, etc.), a young Robert Stack and Robert Young (cast, unusually, in the role of an evil political convert). Like all great films, it operates on many levels including as a tragic romance - the consequence of a world gone mad. Saying much more will give too much away, but suffice it to say, this film is one that should be shown regularly and appreciated for the power of its message as well as for its many brilliant aspects. Deeply moving - and super scary, for it also speaks, in some way, to today's political turmoil and a growing fanaticism and intolerance.

Mortal Storm is a historical drama from 1940, released during WWII before the U.S. entered the war. It is a time capsule showing how some Americans in 1940 viewed the beginnings of Hitler's rise to power in 1933. And it portends the later atrocities of Naziism, warning us that the barbaric acts of dictators can emerge almost innocently from the misguided values of a population that is searching for something better.At its heart, Mortal Storm is a story of ideals. It shows that every value has a consequence and is, therefore, important.Our story starts in a small German town, 1933. Professer Roth is a respected educator who calls himself "an absent-minded professor". He is surrounded by an adoring family, loving colleagues, and a wealth of students at his feet, including Jimmy Stewart and Robert Cummings --two of Hollywood's squeaky clean everymen--as Brietner and Marlberg. That evening, the family is gathered to celebrate Prof. Roth's 60th birthday. As they sit around the dinner table, we might mistake this charming tableau as a typically American family in Hollywood movies.The professor makes a toast to "tolerance and sense of humor". His beautiful daughter Freya becomes engaged to Fritz Marberg. Joy abounds, though Martin Brietner, another pretender for the hand of Freya Roth, seems somewhat sad that Fritz beat him to it. Adding the piece de resistance to this happy occasion, the family maid, Marta announces that Adolph Hitler has been named Chancellor of Germany. The family tunes in to the live radio broadcast of the event with cheers of happiness and assertions of future greatness for the Fatherland. The announcer refers to the "power and glory" to come. The two older sons of Prof. Roth assert that Germany will now become "master of Europe and the world" and that "Nations who want peace will have nothing to fear", that "we should be intolerant to anyone who opposes" the new direction of Germany. Amidst these brave hurrahs, Professor Roth timidly suggests that it is important to allow everyone his own opinions. Roth's young son, with a foreshadowing of the actual path Nazi Germany will take, says they are taught in school that the "individual must be sacrificed to the welfare of the state."By now, it is fairly clear what ideals are in play. The announcement of Hitler's appointment is a pivot in the history of Germany and the world. And it is a pivot in our story. From this moment on, intolerance will be the order of the day.The movie's plot demonstrates that Nationalism is nothing but intolerance parading as patriotism. Guilt by association becomes a part of everyday life. Public demonstrations of loyalty to the party ("Heil Hitler" ) become de rigeur, leading to bullying and widespread party thuggery. Those who express opposition to the party are branded traitors. Party members denounce those "pacifist vermin". We see more and more citizens in uniform as society becomes militarized. The Nazi version of Nationalism is shown to be racism, espousing "racial purity" and "Aryan supremacy". (The seeds of Nazi German racism were planted long before Hitler, but that is a story outside the scope of this movie.)Intolerance leads to boycotting for purely political reasons, then to the burning (censoring) of any media that might differ from the party line. This approach to the design of a culture finally results in anti-intellectual hooliganism. As the atrocities pile up, Freya finally breaks off her engagement.Martin escapes Germany via a secret mountain pass. A patrol comes looking for him, but they are stonewalled by his mother, Freya and Elsa, a farm employee. At this point the story reveals its one flaw. When Elsa runs upstairs to evade the questioning of the patrol, she stops to pray at a small religious shrine, crossing herself in the Catholic tradition. Whether out of ignorance or an intention to paint the (Nazi) opposition as a godless organization, the film clearly wants us to believe that horrible actions of such a group could not be sanctioned by anyone with a religious viewpoint. This is demonstrated through the remainder of the film. The only times praying or God are mentioned it is by those who resist the Nazis. This is a historical inaccuracy. The Catholic church specifically was not an enemy of this dictatorship. The Nazi movement was not atheistic. But the film might have mislead viewers in 1940 to think that was the case. The film continues with the arrest of Prof. Roth for "theory antagonistic to ideals" of the state. He disappears. Later we are told he died in captivity. At this point, we might reflect on the oppression, torture and extermination of the millions who were targets of Hitler and his subordinates in the name of racial purity, including those of the Jewish faith and gypsies.The rest of the story details Frau Roth's attempt to leave Germany with Freya and her youngest son, and Martin's attempt to reunite with Freya in Austria.The film ends with a voice-over narration from the poem "The Gate of the Year", an ode to religious faith that is misplaced here, probably to assure viewers that the world situation, though grim, will improve sometime in the future.I will end by saying that the music in this film was well done. And Mortal Storm features a cast for whom "wow" seems to be the best descriptor. Their roles were portrayed with conviction and talent.

The Roth family lead a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930's. When the Nazi's come to power, the family is divided and Martin Brietner (James Stewart), a family friend is caught up in the turmoil.This is a hard film to find -- I checked in multiple libraries throughout the state of Wisconsin, and every considered buying it. And even then, a good copy is hard to track down. Why? The story is excellent, and it is early James Stewart... this should be a classic, but instead remains almost completely unknown.I want this film to see a resurgence (or maybe just a surge). I want it to get a decent transfer, released on a nice DVD with features, and I want people to have actually heard of it. Few films had the courage to stand up to Hitler before the war, and I doubt any of the few others did so as forcefully as this one did.