SO ENDS OUR NIGHT

US, 1941, 120 minutes, Black and white.
Fredric March, Margaret Sullavan, Glenn Ford, Frances Dee, Anna Sten , Erich Von Stroheim, Joseph Cawthorn, Leonid Kinskey, Alexander Granach, Sig Rumann.
Directed by John Cromwell.

So Ends Our Night is based on the novel Flotsam by Erich Maria Remarque (All Quiet on the Western Front). It is directed by John Cromwell who made such films as Abe Lincoln in Illinois at this period. The film focuses on pre-World War Two Germany and shows the plight of the refugees - with some force, even to the extent of preaching. The film has an excellent cast and the stand-out is the young Glenn Ford who gives a very striking central performance. Erich Von Stroheim has a chance to add to the gallery of Nazis he played - he was about to play Rommel in Billy Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo.

The film has strong intentions - but, somehow or other, it does not have quite the spark that it intended. However, it is a different war film from the early '40s - and stands up better than some of the more propaganda-oriented films of the time.

1. The impact in the '40s ? Later? The worthiness of the message? The sense of humanity and justice? The mood of the film? How well does it capture its time?

2. The novels of Erich Maria Remarque? The various film versions? The director? The stars?

3. Black and white photography, the atmosphere of Europe and the rise of the Nazis? Germany in the '30s, Austria, Switzerland? The sense of contemporary experience? The musical score?

4. The interweaving of the two plots? The establishment of the two characters, the two stories? The drama of their interweaving?

5. The basic situation for refugees in 1937? Germany and Nazi domination, the establishment of Dachau - and the references to concentration camps? Prisoners, escapers, refugees? The importance of having passports - and the initial message of the film? Austria, Czechoslovakia? The Nazi
occupations, the build-up to invasion?

6. The background of Nazi imprisonment, the role of the police, arrests, passport checks and the administration of justice, German suspicions, the work of the Gestapo?

7. Joseph: Fredric March's presence and performance? As a character, background, life in the camp, political stance? Wanting to see his wife? His wanting her to divorce him for her own safety? The encounter with Ludwig? The deportation? The gambling and his work in the carnival? Questions of passports? The fairground - and the sequences of his trick of reading minds? The support of friends? His being wanted, escape? The Gestapo? Paris and work, his sick wife and his love for her? The train - and the name of Marie and his vision? The request to the Gestapo? The pressure on him to give a name for his wife and her safety? For his wife's happy death? His return? Seeing her? The amnesty, his violence, the death - killing the Gestapo?

8. The contrast with Ludwig: young, wandering, in prison, the nick-name of Baby? His passport not being in order? Deported? Prague, the encounter with Ruth? Suspicions, happy times with Ruth, leaving, following her, the carnival and Ludwig, friends? Zurich and his hopes? Going to Paris? His love for Ruth - marriage, work, prison? Deported? The quality of Glenn Ford's performance?

9. Ruth and Margaret Sullavan's performance? Her work, the question of the passport, the hostel? The help from Professor Meyer? The lyrical sequences with Ludwig? Isolation? Paris and study, marriage and love? Ludwig's arrest and her reaction? Threatening the Senator? Marriage? The search for Ludwig? The French soldiers?

10. The various supporting characters - and their experience of lack of passport, prison? The group in the prison? Friendships? The support in the carnival? Paris?

11. The presentation of the police, collaborators? Passport examiners?

12. The Gestapo, the interrogations, methods? The Gestapo chief and his interaction with Joseph? Using Joseph's wife to obtain the names of underground members?

13. Themes of war, personal justice? The sentiment of the film for its time? Propaganda elements? Satisfying entertainment?