Review – The Mortal Storm

MGM’s movies were banned from Germany after the studio released this broad assault on Nazism. It even produced a bit of a stir in the United States, as it was blatant anti-Hitler propaganda before America entered the war (and thus technically violated the Hays Code’s requirement that foreign leaders be treated with respect). Frankly, I can see why its targets were upset. This is an effective attack on the Nazis’ racist, anti-intellectual tyranny. The ending is a bit depressing, though that’s in keeping with the not-yet-mercifully-exterminated nature of the problem in 1940. Jimmy Stewart stars as a simple farmer trying to walk the line between giving in to the new regime and running afoul of its brutal thugs. Margaret Sullivan also turns in a fine performance as the daughter of a professor (Frank Morgan) arrested by stormtroopers for daring to suggest that “racial superiority” has no basis in biology. Worth seeing