From the mystery of the first scene, you know that this is not just another war movie. This dealt honestly and on a raw level with the gut-wrenching issues that emerge when a country is occupied by a people not very much unlike themselves. Both sides try to reconcile the apparent incongruities to peacefully co-exist and yet allow the Norwegians to keep their basic human dignity, but alas the positions are inevitably irreconcilable. Because the emotions it portrays are so genuine and honest, this is one of the best propaganda films made by the allies while the war was still ongoing. Nancy Colman and Judith Anderson are standouts in a uniformly excellent cast. I consider this the perfect war film.

The heroic resistance of the occupied Norway attracted, for some reason, a fair amount of interest, in "The Commandos Strike At Dawn,"

"The Moon Is Down," and "Edge of Darkness."

Lewis Milestone, who has made the pacifist "All Quiet on the Western Front, is a key figure in crusading films about war..

His "Edge of Darkness" is a brave and interesting film ,and a touching tribute to Norwegian courage during the Nazi occupation...

The characterization is cleverly drawn: Errol Flynn, the fisherman who assumes command of the resistance in his small Norwegian village; Ann Sheridan, the willful and obstinate daughter of the respected physician Walter Huston who didn't want to know but is led inexorably to aid the resistance after his innocent daughter is brutally raped by a German soldier; Ruth Gordon, his shy retiring wife, as the neurotic mother who lives in dreams of the past; her greedy brother, the opportunistic businessman Charles Dingle who owns the cannery which employs most of the villagers, a traitor who "deals in facts... The future is with the New Order."

After the battle between the German garrison and the townspeople, when all his hopes and dreams are shattered, he wanders through the devastated village claiming it as his own: "It's mine, it's all mine", he cries with mad irrational eyes to a German patrol... Of course he is shot down...

Another characters in the movie: John Beal, the weak and traitorous son; an innkeeper (Judith Anderson) whose hatred of the enemy is intensified by their killing of her husband; and a courageous schoolmaster (Morris Carvosky),whose ivory tower is completely smashed...

The most interesting feature of the film is in its declination of social structure... The capitalist Dingle, is recognized by the brutal Nazis; the humble fisherman Flynn becomes the leader of the underground movement...

All the peacetime hierarchies are overturned: the lovely Ann Sheridan is capable to fall in love with Flynn, who, in peacetime, would have been untouchable..

Decision-making is no longer the exclusive right of the town elders, but of everybody... All the villagers must be involved... In the church they gather to decide whether or not to accept British guns and bullets... It is a matter for the villagers to decide by concord of opinion... They talk until they have agreed..

The film ends with the marching into the hills to continue their resistance... Walter Huston stumbles and falls... Flynn and his fiancée rush to help him up... He protests, "I can manage alone!" They persist, and as they hold him between them, Flynn says, "There is no need to walk alone."

One of the things that all of the films about Norway during World War II fail to mention is why the Nazis were there in the first place. All of the Scandinavian countries would have gladly sat out this war as they did World War I. In fact all, but Sweden got into it for various reasons.

In the case of Norway, it's simply the long Norwegian coastline. Even before the Soviet Union was invaded, Hitler saw the necessity of preventing supplies from getting to the Soviets should they break the Hitler-Stalin pact and enter the war on the allied side. The convoy route used was the one into the Arctic Ocean into Archangel and Murmansk. No other route was possible for American lend lease. The Nazis operated bases from Norway and sank a lot of allied shipping in the North Atlantic.

So this is why this small village and so many others like it were occupied and why the country was invaded. The Norwegian people from the king and queen on down, knew their country was in a sideshow theater, yet they did resist as best they could.

In fact Mr. Churchill did mount a counterattack in Norway, but the invasion failed and British troops had to withdraw. From time to time he brought up freeing Norway during allied conferences, but could get no support for it from Roosevelt or Stalin.

Errol Flynn stars in Edge of Darkness and the usual Flynn derring-do is kept on hold. Probably in keeping with the stoical nature of Scandinavian character. He's not exactly Captain Blood in this one. He's a fisherman, but his natural qualities of leadership come through as he leads the resistance.

Edge of Darkness is the story of one coastal Norwegian village who put up with Nazi occupation beyond what was humanly bearable. The rape of Ann Sheridan finally touches off a revolt.

It's not a star vehicle per se. Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan have a great deal less dialog than they would in most films. Edge of Darkness is a study of the various townspeople and the way each one of them deals with the Nazi occupation.

Walter Huston and Ruth Gordon are the parents of Sheridan and John Beal. Huston is the town doctor and tries to remain above the battle. Gordon, like Patricia Collinge in The Little Foxes, retreats into nostalgia. Sheridan is a resistance member and Beal was an informer in Oslo, but only the immediate family know it at first.

However the performance I like the best is Charles Dingle's. Dingle has always been one of my favorite character players ever. He's Gordon's brother, the owner of the cannery, and he quite deliberately chooses to collaborate with the Germans. He's the kind of villain you love to hate as is Helmut Dantine the commanding officer of the Nazi garrison.

We learn Dingle's fate at the beginning of the film and as the action unfolds in flashback the audience really rejoices in that fate.

No mistake about it, Edge of Darkness is a World War II propaganda film, but still entertaining today