El día amanecerá

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.

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.

Called the day will dawn in europe, but the avengers in canada and the united states. It's a brit film. Reporter colin metcalfe (hugh williams) is assigned to the european beat, after hitler moves into poland. When the germans sink his boat on the way to norway, no one seems to believe him. But he does fall for kari (young deborah kerr, in an early role), the captain's daughter. And as the german ships come into the harbor, pretending to be merchant ships, colin is abducted and held prisoner by the germans. Will metcalfe ever get to tell what he knows? Will his stories make a difference? The script is peppered with patriotic messages. A call to take action, avoiding neutrality, as hitler moves into more euro countries. Acc to imdb, this was released in the united kingdom in june 1942, so both britain and the united states were already actively in the war by then. This seems to start the story from earlier, before britain was involved in action. Directed by harold french. According to wikipedia dot org, french lost his own wife in a bombing raid in 1941. Produced by general films, and distributed in the united states by paramount. It's a little disjointed, but does show the chronology of events in europe.

Hugh Williams plays a reporter dropped into Norway to find a U-boat dock that is sending out convoys to destroy British ships. His job is to find it and report back so that our navy can destroy it. He meets and falls in love with beautiful twenty one year old Deborah Kerr, a Norwegian.

Various other well known faces from that era of British film making crop up including Finlay Currie as Kerr's father, Francis L. Sullivan as a brutal Nazi officer, Griffith Jones as a German police chief, the great Ralph Richardson as another reporter, Roland Culver as a British navy bigwig, even Bernard Miles in a small role towards the end.

Much of the film is shot in the dark, which can be a bit boring as I couldn't see a lot of what was going on, but maybe that was to cover up some of the cheap sets used. I don't think much money was spent on this production so probably best to think of it as a play rather than a film.

Our hero, Hugh Williams is stiff as a board but fortunately he's completely out acted by our leading lady and it is not hard to see why Kerr became one of the great star actresses of the cinema.

One gripe is that I would have given a higher rating had the actor's accents been more consistent. Some like Kerr and other Norwegians, at least speak in broken English, which I think gives an impression of being foreign but for some annoying reason, Francis L. Sullivan, who is fine otherwise as the nasty German officer, speaks in perfect English with no attempt to disguise his voice at all. That rather spoilt the film for me as other Germans also just spoke in English with no accent.

One scene towards the end is particularly harrowing so still worth a watch, and to see Deborah Kerr of course near the start of her brilliant career.

There have been plenty of fine war films and ones with a message or dealing with specific conflicts, am never going to dismiss every war film made during WW2 propaganda straight off the bat because many were more than that. 'The Day Will Dawn' was primarily seen for the cast, hard to go wrong with Deborah Kerr (in an early role), Finlay Currie and Francis L Sullivan, and because it was another film chosen to watch when visiting my godparents.

My feelings on 'The Day Will Dawn' were mostly moderately positive, while not being bowled over. Was to be honest expecting more considering the calibre of the cast, but considering the general reputation of similar films centered around WW2 it also could have been worse. 'The Day Will Dawn's' good intentions were truly admirable and very obvious and there are many good things, though more subtlety and consistency would have made it quite a bit better.

Am going to start with the good. The cast mostly are fine. Kerr did go on to do better and has an accent that would never pass for Norweigan in a million years, but she gives poignant dignity to a rather colourless role (particularly evident in the prison scene awaiting execution). Sullivan was seldom more malevolent than he is here and Currie is larger than life and touching. There is some nice photography and a stirring score.

Did think too that enough of the action roused, while the prison scene was pretty heart-wrenching and the climax terrifying. It also starts off with great promise and is well directed.

On the other hand, Hugh Williams has a very bland character and is too stiff and restrained in it. The pacing is not always consistent, at times it's perfect and exciting and at other times it could have been a good deal tauter and less deliberate.

While the intentions are obvious, good and noble, the film did feel heavy handed and pretty much reiterated what many know already regarding how evil the opposition was. While photographed well, 'The Day Will Dawn' is not that well made visually, with some cheap settings and over obvious, overused and even cheaper stock footage that is clumsily inserted.

In conclusion, above average if unexceptional. 6/10.