| Academy Awards, USA | |||
| Year | Result | Award | Category/Recipient(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1944 | Nominated | Oscar | Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White Perry Ferguson Howard Bristol |
| Best Cinematography, Black-and-White James Wong Howe | |||
| Best Effects, Special Effects Clarence Slifer (photographic) Ray Binger (photographic) Thomas T. Moulton (sound) | |||
| Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Aaron Copland | |||
| Best Sound, Recording Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD) | |||
| Best Writing, Original Screenplay Lillian Hellman | |||
RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Lewis Milestone
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)
The first half of the film is an idealized portrait of life in a small Russian village at the height of communism that bears little if any resemblance to reality. They sing and work, dance and work, greet each other loudly and happily, all the while extolling their love of nation. It's all a set up for the German invasion which comes in the form of an air raid. Soon, the fascists take over their town, forcing the happy townsfolk to burn their homes and become guerrilla soldiers. Most of the characters are killed or wounded in grisly ways, all for the love of Russia. The acting is wooden and the dialogue preachy. It's hard to believe this was merely 13 years after Milestone directed All Quiet on the Western Front, one of the all-time great anti-war films.
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