Throughout the 1930s. Warner Brothers specialized in low-budget “headliner” films, action-based narratives taking topical material as their basis. Some of these would go on to become foundational texts of the social problem genre (I Am a Fugitive from the Chain Gang, Heroes for Sale, Wild Boys of the Road), but in fact the “headliner” genre was much broader in subject matter.
Take 1941’s Underground, about the underground movement in Nazi Germany. Until its DVD release, it’s been one of the forgotten entries in the anti-Nazi cycle, made as it was before the war’s start. In narrative in subject matter, it resembles Hangmen Also Die, only without the Fritz Lang imprimateur or the Cahiers article to give it fame. It’s too bad, as there are some great moments in this admittedly flawed film. The torture and prison sequences are both gripping and fascinating for their creeping sadomasochism that would come to full bloom in film noir. The visual style, too, already harkens to the fully developed expressionism of noir, more or less proving that Hollywood’s Classical years (20s through mid 40s) already had the elements attributed to noir.
One striking aspect of the narrative, though, is the utter incompetence ascribed to both Gestapo and Underground. The secret police seem unable to stake out an apartment or to do run-of-the-mill detective work. The resistance keep using members clearly under suspicion and have no better protocol than barging into each other’s apartments with forbidden packages.
I know such lack of verisimilitude is beside the point as far as the film is concerned. But what was resistance in pre-war Germany really like? How substantial was it? Who was it? How did they really operate? I find myself eager to know more of the history, and in addition would love to see a film today deal with it. Certainly it would be more elucidating than ruminations on Hitler’s secretary.
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