Watch Counter-Attack For Free

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Boring

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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.

Produced and directed by Zoltan Korda with a screenplay by John Howard Lawson from an adaptation by Janet Stevenson and Philip Stevenson of Pobyeda, a play by Ilya Vershinin and Mikhail Ruderman, this psychological war drama features Paul Muni as Alexei Kulkov, a Russian soldier who, along with a female resistance fighter as his assistant Lisa Elenko (Marguerite Chapman), finds himself in a position to extract vital intelligence information from some Nazis that he's taken prisoner while all are trapped in a bombed out building.It's 1942 and the Russians have been driven back such that the German front is a thousand miles into their own country. But Ostrovski (Ian Wolfe, uncredited) and Colonel Seminov (George Macready) have a plan - to build an unseen bridge eighteen inches under the river which will enable Russian tanks and troops to cross - the first step of which is to drop paratroopers behind enemy lines. Among these are Kulkov, his German Shepherd dog and Kirichenko (Larry Parks), who are led by Elenko once they land. They attack the German stronghold at a factory and the Russians win the battle until an alerted squadron of enemy planes bomb the facility, trapping Kulkov and Elenko with seven German soldiers that they'd just discovered and captured. Fortunately, Kulkov's dog sniffed out this fact and, using a kind of Morse code on a pipe that extends from the room to the surface, Kirichenko learns the situation from his comrade and decides to venture back across the river to inform his commanding officers.By flashlight, lantern, then even candlelight, Kulkov and Elenko take turns keeping a machine gun trained on the Germans at the other end of the large room. Over the course of many hours, Kulkov uses his cunning and reasoning abilities to learn that among his prisoners is a German officer who might have important information that will help his country's counterattack. Of course, the Nazis do their best to keep the identity of their officer a secret while they scheme to overcome the increasingly tired Kulkov and Elenko, who is stabbed in a brief scuffle that ensues when the lantern is knocked out. As the hours become days, through interrogation and tricks, Kulkov learns the identity of the officer and then plays a dangerous game of "who knows what" during which he reveals more than he intended about the "invisible" bridge being built by his countrymen. When the trapped hear digging and voices on the surface, they know that the end is near but it's unclear who it is. Kulkov knows that he must kill his Nazi prisoners if it's Germans who are about to rescue them, but it turns out to be his Russian comrades, dog and Col. Seminov, who is thrilled to learn the location of his enemy's concentration.

An engrossing WW2 film set somewhere on the Russian Front with Paul Muni as a member of a Russian assault team who is trapped in a collapsed building with seven German soldiers, one of whom is an officer. Along with him is Margarithe Chapman as a Russian partisan. His character is in the lead part of a big Russian counter-attack that is to be launched across a river on a bridge that's being built eighteen inches under the surface of the water. The setting in the collapsed building with the German soldiers whom he has captured and is trying to extract information from is beautifully done with tension and humor amidst fading light, all captured by cinematographer James Wong Howe, one of the greats of B&W photography (and color, too if you've seen Picnic). Maybe Muni was a tad bit better in I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang, but he's awfully good here as a crafty Russian fighting sleep deprivation and fading light. The Germans are great as well, each getting enough lines to establish himself. Margarithe Chapman's part as Muni's comrade captures the idea of equality in the ranks among men and women. She's tough but tender.

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.