Producer: Walter Wanger. Released through United Artists. Copyright 7 June 1938 by Walter Wanger Productions, Inc. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 16 June 1938 (ran one week). U.S. release: 17 June 1938. Australian release: 15 September 1938. 9 reels. 84 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A Loyalist peasant (Fonda), aided by a Fascist spy (Carroll) whom he has converted to the Loyalist cause, raise the blockade of Barcelona.NOTES: Classified "C" for "Condemned" by the Legion of Decency, "Blockade" is a famous (or infamous) film that brought little credit on those who supported it (Democrats, Socialists, Communists and assorted left-wingers) and none at all to those who so vehemently opposed it (Catholics, Masons, Episcopalians, McCarthyites, Birchists, Ku Klux Klansmen, Republicans and other right-of-center and far-right organizations). Lawson was later blacklisted by the witch-hunting HUAC. Oddly enough, producer Walter Wanger managed to survive the post-war "anti-American" hysteria, but director Dieterle found himself on what he called "the gray list". As a result, his work opportunities were severely limited.Negative cost: $692,086. Initial world-wide rentals gross: $718,693. As only a 50% share of the gross at most was returned to Wanger, he ended up with a massive loss.COMMENT: Despite the pretensions of its scriptwriter, this romantic drama, set during the Spanish Civil War, is largely comic-book stuff. Clean-cut Henry Fonda, gazing moodily at Miss Carroll whilst quoting romantic poetry, — or stirring up refugees to resist the enemy, — is about as unconvincing a Spanish peasant as you can get. At least Fonda and all the other players — with two notable exceptions — spare us any attempts whatever at Spanish accents.The first of the exceptions of course is Leo Carrillo. He is obviously along mostly for comic relief, though he does have some "serious" bits, all of which he plays in an obnoxiously broad and hammy manner.Our second Spanish harmonizer is Vladimir Sokoloff (ingeniously introduced in one of the film's rare touches of directorial invention by tracking shots of his white-spatted feet) who provides the movie's one really convincing performance. His reluctant spy easily creams the rest of the cast. Unfortunately, his role is all too small, his death leading to Miss Carroll's delightfully trite encounter with Fonda: "You killed him. You!" — "I'm sorry, miss. I didn't know he was your father."The absurdity and unintentional ludicrousness of Miss Carroll's scenes with Fonda, allied with their pretentiously banal dialogue ("Never to see the sun again!"), plus the melodramatic contrivances of the plot twists that inexorably manage to bring these two stars constantly together, rank among the worst ever perpetrated in an "A" picture. How our Madeleine can keep a straight face through her "I never had a country" lines, rates as a minor miracle of histrionic self-control.As if one clown in the plot were not enough, the script later introduces Reginald Denny as a stage Englishman, whose function is mainly to feed lines to Carrillo. They indulge in a purgative, totally unfunny conversation about tinned corn beef.The pseudo-Spanish music score has to be heard to be believed. Heavily underlining every scene, it reaches a climax of movie bathos in the episode with Fonda leading the peasants to resist behind sandbanks, whilst a stirring off-camera chorus urges, "Fight for the Right!"Complete with obviously phony backdrops, the sets take pride of place as some of the most obvious fakes ever to come out of Hollywood. "Blockade" was most certainly filmed entirely on a studio sound- stage.

Directed by William Dieterle, and written by John Howard Lawson, this below average war drama attempts to evoke sympathy for the struggles of peasants during the Spanish Civil War. Henry Fonda plays a simple farmer named Marco who becomes a leader in the resistance against the invaders who would take their land and livelihood. Leo Carrillo plays his sheepherder friend Luis and Madeline Carroll plays a Russian foreigner he meets, and is smitten by, just before the war breaks out. John Halliday and Vladimir Sokoloff play spies who infiltrate the resistance for profit and Reginald Denny a journalist who writes about the peasants' struggle. Robert Warwick, Peter Godfrey, and William Davidson also appear in supporting roles. The film received Academy Award nominations for its Werner Jannsen (his first) Score and Lawson's (his only) Original Story.Peasant farmer Marco (Fonda) and fellow peasant sheepherder Luis (Carrillo) discuss the love of their land and sheep, respectively. They are interrupted when a car driven by a woman crashes into Marco's ox cart. Norma (Carroll) is a foreigner on her way to town where her father is seeking art treasures. Her car no longer functioning, Marco & Luis decide to help her; Luis directs Marco's oxen who tow the car while Marco sits beside Norma in her front seats. He is taken with her beauty and perfume while she dreams of a less traveled life with a home to call her own. When they get to town, she departs to join her father while Marco and Luis begin to return home. Norma learns that her father Basil (Sokoloff) is once again working with a man she detests named Andre Gallinet (Halliday). But Basil promises his daughter that they'll settle down somewhere after they do one more job.While Marco & Luis are headed out of town, they hear gunfire. Soon there is an exodus of all the town's residents until Marco decides it's time to make a stand. With impassioned words, Marco makes a speech which stops his fellow peasants' flight; they all decide to make a stand to save what little they have in the world. Their fight is successful and Marco is given a leadership position by the Commandant (Davidson), though in another town. After watching a magician (Godfrey) perform some slight of hand in a bar, Marco is suspicious enough to have the magician arrested while he follows another participant with fancy shoes. Not knowing that the man is Norma's father, Marco shoots Basil when he resists arrest, after he'd apprehended Basil in his apartment. Norma rushes into the room with several of Marco's men and is naturally upset with Marco for killing her father. Suspected of being a spy, Norma is taken in for questioning. Then, there's an air raid during which Norma and Marco are trapped in a basement together; Luis rescues them, but Norma escapes. She then learns that her father was part of Gallinet's spy ring. Gallinet is in a position to free her from General Vallejo (Warwick) if she'll deliver a message to the town she and Marco first met.After reluctantly agreeing to deliver the secret message, Norma meets journalist Edward Grant (Denny) on the train there. He begins the process of her realization that the people Gallinet is working for are ruthless, but not before she delivers the message to his spies in town. In fact, Gallinet's side has instituted a blockade to keep food and other supplies from reaching the town, in order to break the peasants' spirit and crush the rebellion. The note that Norma delivered will allow them to sink the latest supply ship headed to their town. Horrified after what she sees, starving children and forlorn mothers, Norma goes to Marco to admit her guilt and convince him to let her undo what she'd done. After her impassioned speech, Marco allows Norma to leave, but follows her. Just when Norma had almost gotten the spies to cancel the submarine which would then sink the supply ship, Marco's men moved in and captured them all. However, just before Marco's raid, Luis is seen boarding a small boat with several other men.It turns out that Luis and his companions, under Marco's orders, had dragged a dilapidated and empty ship out to sea to be sunk in lieu of the real supply ship. Of course, none of the spies knew that and General Vallejo and Gallinet, who'd just arrived in town together, are surprised to see the real supply ship arrive at port. Norma, who'd been arrested with six other spies, is taken before the General where she learns that he too is working with Gallinet. The General has just had the other six spies executed to keep from talking and is about to have Norma sentenced to death when Marco rushes in. She and Marco are then taken away. As the General is being congratulated for the supply ship (he'd wanted to sink) arriving safely, Marco and Norma are brought before him, followed by the Commandant who tells the General his spy gig is up. Marco gives yet another impassioned speech, seemingly to the film's audience, asking "won't anybody help?".

Henry Fonda was roped into this -- he had a higher box office rating than the perfect actor for it, Gilbert Roland. There aren't many roles both of these men could play, and this wasn't one of them.The story concerns the Spanish Civil War.The script was written by an avowed Communist, John Howard Lawson who wanted to "present the Communist position" in his scripts. He doesn't really get to do that in Blockade, since it's deliberately ambiguous as to the different factions, referred to as "they" and "us." The costuming also doesn't suggest anything as far as sides.The story concerns a place called Castelmare, where Marco and Luis (Fonda and Leo Carrillo) help a Russian woman, Norma (Madeleine Carroll) who has had a car accident on the way to her father's. For Marco, it's love at first sight.When war begins, Marco is the head of a group of peasant attempting to defend Castelmare. Meanwhile, Norma and her father are forced to spy for the other side. Marco winds up killing Norma's father.Castelmare cannot get any supplies, and Norma is being blackmailed to give information about the ship so that it can be sunk.Probably the most striking thing are the closeups of the suffering peasants.Casablanca it isn't. Fonda and Carroll have no chemistry. The dialogue is very stilted. Henry Fonda at the end gives an impassioned speech right into the camera. It's embarrassing.

Marco is a simple Spanish farmer who is forced to stand up and be counted when he takes up arms to protect his country during the civil war. When his heroics and bravery sees him promoted up the ranks, Marco finds things complicated when he starts to fall in love with a woman who's father turns out to be a Russian spy. The couple try to deal with their feelings while they find themselves on opposite sides of the war.Boasting the tagline 'the most important film of 1938' and having been awarded Oscars at the time of its release, I decided to watch this film and see what the fuss was about. What I found was a film that is too self-consciously cautious to be great fun, too worthy to be involving and ends up being rather dull and uninteresting. The basic plot is set around the Spanish civil war but it appears to have been careful about coming down on either side of the argument and therefore is so balanced that it almost cancels out any content that may have been challenging or informative. This leaves a story about personalities and the central romance, which is a problem because the film doesn't deal with these very well either. The romance tries to be bleak and supposedly doomed but it just can't get the tone right and it never really gets anywhere near as emotive as it needed to be – certainly this is no Casablanca.With the script problems and rather drab direction, the film only occasionally gets close to being really impacting and involving and it was only the moments where the horrors of the conflict are allowed to get above political neutrality that the film comes to life – but these are too infrequent. The cast are set adrift and do the best they can to squeeze emotion and drama out of the script but their efforts just seem out of place against a rather flat backdrop. Fonda is always watchable even if his 'good honest man' is a rather dull character and, for that reason, hard to get behind; certainly modern audiences may find his unquestioning patriotism and simple morals hard to swallow. Carroll is better than the film deserves, her performance is very good and it is just a shame that the rest of the film doesn't come up to her level of work. Support is OK but the script doesn't fill the film that well and most of the cast are given little to do.Overall this may well have been the 'most important film of 1938' but it doesn't do a great deal today. The film doesn't inform and isn't interesting as it carefully treads the complexities of the conflict – and Fonda's final to-camera rant about peace is too little, too late and just comes across as being rather pat. The romance could have saved it but this too is fluffed despite the best efforts of Carroll, but Fonda, despite being worth a look, plays it all to simplistically in line with the material.