One of the titles this movie played under is AT DAWN WE DIE; confusingly, another is TOMORROW WE LIVE. It's directed by George King, who made his mark with cheap quota quickies in the 1930s, most notably the Tod Slaughter melodramas; it stars John Clements, the distinguished stage actor-manager, whose best-known movie role was as Harry Faversham in the great 1939 THE FOUR FEATHERS. That was British film making in the War, when the cinematic world turned upside down, and this story of how Clements wandered into town and found himself in the middle of underground operations and sabotage that was invariably forewarned with the Cross of Lorraine (the symbol of the Free French), drives everyone crazy.It's certainly not a subtle movie on any terms; the mystery, of who was actually in charge of the Resistance in town and who were the collaborators were easy to figure out, simply by assuming this would hit every stereotype of the genre. Yet I found it carried out with such easy confidence in its competent cast, that it rolled right along, as easily as any American movie of the period. If you're in the mood for one of those movies with evil Nazis, freedom-loving Frenchmen who face a firing squad singing "Le Marseillaise" and the inevitable triumph of good over evil, this should fit the bill.

Script continuity: Katherine Strueby. Made with the co-operation of General De Gaulle. Associate producer: John Stafford. Producer: George King. Executive producer: S.W. Smith. A British Aviation Production. (Available on a very good, full-length Odeon DVD).Copyright 20 March 1943 in the USA by Republic Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Abbey: 7 May 1943. U.K. release through British Lion: 5 April 1943. London trade show: December 1942. Australian release through G.B.D./20th Century-Fox: 31 March 1944. 7,882 feet. 87½ minutes. Cut to 78 minutes in the U.S.A.U.S. release title: AT DAWN WE DIE.SYNOPSIS: The daughter of a French mayor poses as a collaborator to allow a spy to escape to England with vital U-boat information.COMMENT: Although allegedly based on a true story, the plot follows a well-grooved path. Greta Gynt makes a surprisingly charming and attractive heroine. But John Clements is most unbelievable, while Godfrey Tearle seems unaccountably to be doing a masquerade part with a dubbed voice! Some of the other players are better, particularly and surprisingly Stepanek, who makes up for his late entrance with a full-blooded if conventional portrait of a sarcastic, sadistic villain. Sinclair is as unconvincing as usual, but Wendhausen is ideally cast and one is sorry when he is killed.However, too much of Yvonne Arnaud's French-type mother-figure doesn't help. The film would certainly benefit by some astute cutting, though the action scenes are fine. Direction, while mostly routine, does have occasional flashes of style. Photography is first-class, and so is art direction. Production values, despite the obvious use of models in some sequences, are quite fair.

One's first thoughts are how clichéd this film is. But then you realise, as with Shakespeare, that the characters and situations only became clichés because of the constant copying of the theme in subsequent movies. Whereas things appear to fall into the hero's lap as per usual, the action is, at times, surprisingly realistic. A female collaborator is viciously slapped about by the SS and later gunned down by the Resistance. In turn two German officers are shot in the back without compassion and in retaliation fifty hostages are rounded up and shot. Thankfully off-screen. However in the midst of all of this is a hilarious scene in a cinema when the French clientele,at being subjected to a newsreel of Hitler, begin catcalling and making shadows on the screen. These include a V-sign, a fist punching Hitler in the face, and fingers tugging at the Furher's hair. All in all an enjoyable propaganda film

Somewhat out of the blue this wartime resistance drama has recently surfaced on Movies4Men.It is one of numerous similar films made around the same time of the war eg Flemish Farm,Freedom Radio which purported to show to English audiences what it was like to live in Occupied Europe.One wonders at this remove what their purpose was.Were they just rousing adventure stories or were they meant to show to the English audiences just how beastly the Nazis were and how the occupied nations were resisting them.I suppose the one standout of this film is the performance of Yvonne Arnaud.She is truly head and shoulders above the rest of the cast.This film is reasonably entertaining and worth a viewing