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Edge of Darkness is a war film released in 1943. It was directed by Lewis Milestone and stars Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, and Walter Huston. It was based on a script by Robert Rossen which was adapted from a novel by William Woods.

The film is unrelated to the 1985 BBC drama serial Edge of Darkness, which was a science fiction murder mystery.

A Norwegian fishing village, Trollness, under years of oppressive Nazi occupation, starts a guerrilla resistance effort, establishing contacts with the British. The film pivots around the local doctor and his family. The doctor's wife (a fine performance by Ruth Gordon) wants to hold on to the pretense of gracious living and ignore the occupiers. The doctor ("Martin Stensgard," played by Walter Huston) would also prefer to stay neutral, but is torn. His brother-in-law, the wealthy owner of the local fish cannery, collaborates with the Nazis. The doctor's daughter Karen (Ann Sheridan) is involved with the resistance and with its leader ("Gunnar Brogge," played by Errol Flynn). The doctor's son, a somewhat ineffective character, has just returned to town, having been sent down from the university, and is soon influenced by his Nazi-sympathizer uncle. The real star turn is by Helmut Dantine as the young German commandant of the occupying garrison, Captain Koenig, whose fanatic determination to do everything by the book and spoutings about the invincibility of the Reich hide a growing (and justified) fear of a local uprising. A secondary love story, which dies aborning, concerns a German sergeant and the innkeeper/lead female resistance fighter. This film is very well acted and by the time a pivotal event forces the doctor to choose sides, the cataclysm becomes unavoidable. The opening of the final showdown between the Nazis and the Norwegians, to the tune of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," sends chills down many a spine. An effective frame tale follows a German detachment under the leadership of a cynical careerist, sent to find out just what happened.

Edge of Darkness at the Internet Movie Database

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