On June 18, 1941, Warner Bros. released Underground, an anti-Nazi propaganda movie designed to whip up animus against the fascist regime in Germany.
It appeared in U.S. theatres shortly before the Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union and six months before the United States abandoned its status as a neutral power and entered World War II after declaring war on Japan, Germany’s ally.
Underground, broadcast by the Turner Classic Movies channel recently, was an unambiguous propaganda film whose implicit purpose was to raise troubling questions about the totalitarian nature of Nazi Germany and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policy of neutrality regarding the war in Europe.
Jack Warner, the chairman of Warner Bros., was a certified opponent of Adolf Hitler’s regime by virtue being Jewish. In 1939, prior to the outbreak of the war, his studio released Confessions Of A Nazi Spy, the first anti-Nazi Hollywood feature film.
Warner was an interventionist who believed that the United States had a moral obligation to defeat Germany by force of arms. His position ran counter to the view of isolationists like the illustrious pilot Charles Lindbergh, who admired the Third Reich and thought that the United States should remain steadfastly neutral.
Underground, directed by Vincent Sherman, received fairly good reviews.
The New York Times gave it credit for achieving “considerable emotional impact” and “gripping vitality” in its portrayal of the savagery of Nazi Germany, but panned it for its overreliance on anti-Nazi tropes and its cartoonish characterization of Gestapo figures.
Variety commended it for effectively highlighting the role of clandestine radio broadcasts in Germany to arouse resistance to tyranny.
One hour and thirty five minutes in length, Underground is set in wartime Berlin and constructed around a family feud pitting two brothers against each other.
Erik Franken (Philip Dorn) is outwardly loyal to the ruling regime, but is secretly a member of a fiercely anti-Nazi cell whose illegal broadcasts incense the powers-that-be.
Kurt (Jeffrey Lynn), his brother, is an army officer who lost an arm during a recent battle. Absolutely devoted to the Nazi cause, he cannot tolerate criticism of the regime. When he returns to his parents’ home on a convalescence visit, Kurt is unaware that Erik is plotting against it.
Dorn and Lynn deliver strong but subtle performances, immeasurably strengthening the film.
The plot grows more complex when Kurt takes a shine to Sylvia Helmuth (the German American actress Kaaren Verne), Erik’s colleague. Sylvia tries to discourage him, but he persists in his romantic pursuit of her.
Suspicious of Sylvia’s loyalties, Heller (Martin Kosleck), a Gestapo colonel, forces Kurt to spy on her. Having fallen in love with Sylvia, he is loathe to expose her as a traitor, even after discovering she is an enemy of the state.
The tension between Kurt’s fealty to Nazism and his reluctance to endanger Sylvia is one of the film’s strengths. It underscores the fact that some Germans were irretrievably opposed to the regime and were prepared to risk their lives to undermine it.
Shot in a visually gripping noir style, Underground succeeds in depicting Nazi Germany as a bastion of totalitarianism rife with concentration camps. Oddly enough, Germany’s persecution of Jews goes unmentioned.
The Nazis who appear and reappear are stereotypical villains. Kosleck, an actor of Russian-German descent who portrayed Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in five Hollywood pictures, is particularly repulsive as a cruel and sadistic functionary.
The alluring Argentinian actress Mona Maris plays Heller’s secretary. Ostensibly a Nazi loyalist, she is really an anti-Nazi mole whose last-minute telephone tips save lives.
Presumably, Underground created a measure of antipathy toward Nazi Germany among American filmgoers. Yet its impact on Americans may have been short-lived. Six months after its release, Germany declared war on the United States, thereby eliminating the need for movies such as Underground.