The Mortal Storm (1940)

The movie begins on Professor Roth's (Frank Morgan's) 60th birthday, where we see all the letters and presents he received. Where he finds his lecture hall filled with students and his co-faculty, there to celebrate him.

Unfortunately, the movie takes place in 1930s Germany, Professor Roth is Jewish, and his 60th birthday happens to be the same night Hitler's appointed Chancellor of Germany. Worse, his two stepsons and their lifelong friend Fritz (Rovert Young), who just announced his intention to marry Roth's daughter Freya (Margaret Sullavan) without really consulting her, are all ecstatic. Things are going to get done now, but everyone had better get on board with supporting their new leader.

Unfortunately, Freya and her other lifelong friend, Martin (James Stewart), are not on board. Martin tries to stay up on his family farm in the mountains, but Freya's attempts to maintain the bond between all the friends only make things worse. Martin objects when the Hitler Youth hassle one of his old professors who won't stand up and sing in the beer hall (no international coalition to sign "La Marseillaise" ala Casablanca), and he and Freya help the man home when he's brutally beaten out on the street minutes later. Martin ends up helping the professor escape to Austria, but now he's wanted if he returns.

The movie shows the situation getting worse in small ways. When Roth's stepsons try to dictate that Martin can't speak with Freya or enter their home. The gradual disappearance of possessions from the walls of the house as they have to sell things off after the professor loses his job. Their housekeeper leaves because it would be bad for her to associate with them. Of course, things get worse in more overt ways, too. Like the Professor being arrested and thrown in a work camp, or the teenage girl who works on Martin's farm being tortured for information on his whereabouts.

The one thing I find odd is that Freya never seems to really grasp how bad things have gotten. Her father, after losing his position, was writing a manuscript of some aspect of physiology. It wasn't finished when he was arrested, and Freya tries to take it with her to Austria as a keepsake. She's stunned when the Nazis not only won't let her take it, but won't let her leave Germany. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. I sometimes think I'm not concerned enough about how likely the U.S. is to devolve into fascism. 

But it's usually a case of people not understanding the danger until it personally impacts them. Well Freya can't make that excuse. They threw your father in a prison camp and worked him until he died! Your brothers actively support this regime and beat up a lifelong friend for not falling in line! How much more evidence did she need?

The movie doesn't end on a happy note, which is hardly surprising. Not like Austria was ultimately safe from the Nazis. The one possible bit of hope is that one of the two stepsons seems to have doubts by the end, that maybe trying to control and dictate what people think is actually a bad thing.