So much average

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Early Hollywood Nazi Movie set in Germany Following a Pirate "Underground" Radio Station and the Nationalist but Anti-Nazi Germans that Risked Their Lives trying to bring Truth to the Population. Oppressive and Gestapo Tactics were being "Jack Booted" on the People with Restrictions on Everything from the Media to Free Speech. This Group of Resistance Fighters and Their Tribulations are Presented in a High Suspense Social Picture that WB did so Well.It has a basically No-Name Cast but all Deliver Riveting, Believable Performances and the Film was Gripping and Obviously Topical, at the Time, and Deserves to be Rediscovered as one of the Best, Unseen and Forgotten Films that is Preachy Without being Overbearing and Thought Provoking Without Doubt.Concentration Camps and the Devastating Effect the Torture had on "Enemies of the State", Brutal Beatings of Suspects (including Women and old folks), Nazi Iconography Dominating Scenes, and a Family Literally Torn Apart by the Hitler Regime are all Included here and No Restraint.The Ending is Wicked and Heart Wrenching but Turns to an Upbeat Note in the "Nick of Time" (but at such cost). This is a Powerful Film and Holds Up much more than many of its Type made Throughout the War. A Must See.

Believe it or not, up until the entry of the US in WWII, it was technically illegal for Hollywood to take a stand concerning the Nazi invasions of most of Europe. A little-known law was passed by Congress that forced the studios to remain neutral on the war--but by 1940 and 41, several bigger studios basically ignored the law. Warner Brothers was the first with "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" but soon MGM came out with "Mortal Storm"--both very, very critical of the German government. As for "Underground", it actually debuted before the attack on Pearl Harbor, so it was also in violation of this probably unconstitutional law. Because of this, you really have to admire the studio for taking such a strong stand against the evils of the Nazi regime.This fictional film finds two brothers, Eric (Philip Dorn) and Kurt (Jeffery Lynn) on opposite sides. Kurt is a wounded war veteran and 100% loyal to his party. Eric, on the other hand, is a leader in the German underground--and Kurt has no idea of this. Eventually, however, Eric is slowly pushed to accept that his Nazi overlords are NOT as wonderful as he once thought--and by the end of the film he is in a complete moral quandary. I could say a lot more about the film, but frankly it would spoil the surprise.About the only thing negative about he film is that the two brothers didn't sound like brothers. Dorn was Dutch by birth and to us Americans, he sounded rather German. But Lynn sounded very American--and this contrast was odd. But, despite this, the script is excellent--exciting, tough and very convincing. It is, in essence, very effective anti-Nazi propaganda--and must have done a lot to galvanize the public against the menace of Nazi Germany. Also, being from Warner Brothers, it had great direction and polish. It compares well with other similar films of the era and is much more subtle than many of the anti-Nazi films that debuted just after the US entered the war. Well worth seeing.

***Some Spoilers*** Pre-Pearl Harbor Hollywood war propaganda flick involving a group of anti-Nazi Germans trying to get the message through to the German people just how rotten the Nazi regime is. Using a shortwave radio the anti-Hitler Germans use it to bring out that the war news is not as bright as their controlled media tells them that it is. There's the sinking of the German super battleship Bismark with all 2,800 sailors, aboard as well as the mysterious flight of Nazi Deputy Fuhrer Rudolph Hess to England whom were told by the Free German radio announcer Eric Franken, Phillip Dorn, just had about enough of Hitler's Germany and escaped to freedom to the British isles! In fact Hess was later tried as a Nazi war criminal at Nuremberg and given a life sentence and then committing suicide, or suspected being murdered, in his Spandou Prison jail cell in 1987 after spending almost 50 years behind bars!It's when Eric's brother Kurt, Jeffery Lynn, shows up with his left arm blown off in Norway that Eric and his members of the anti-Nazi underground run into trouble in that unlike Eric Kurt is a die-in-the-wool Nazi who'll turn him as well as anyone else, even his parents, in if he suspected them of being traitors to their country! It's when Kurt meets Eric's girlfriend and fellow anti-Nazi German violinist Sylvia Helmuth, Kaaren Verne, that his unyielding love for the Fatherland takes a backseat!At first not believing that Sylvia is working for the German underground Kurt is given the job by his superior Col.Heller, Martin Kosleck, to spy on her after she got caught receiving radio equipment through the mail that was banned by the German Government. What Col.Heller doesn't realize is that he has a spy in his own office in the person of his private secretary Fraulein Gessner, Mona Maris, who relays everything going there on to the underground keeping them one step ahead of his henchmen who are out to arrest and execute them. ***SPOILERS*** It's Kurt's lame attempt to prove his worthiness to the Nazi cause as well as save Sylvia from a gestapo firing squad that in the end backfires in him exposing the entire underground movement, as well as his brother Eric, to Col Heller storm troopers. With Eric and his fellow anti-Nazi freedom fighter now about to get the ax, or guillotine, Kurt finally sees the light and joins to good fight by becoming the star announcer of new the Free German Movement after those of the old one have been arrested and slated to be executed by the gestapo!Heart wrenching final with Eric & Co. about to get it in the neck as all of a sudden we and the Nazi gestapo about to do Eric in hear Kurth's voice come out load and clear as it's broadcast all over Berlin denouncing the Nazi Regime and rallying the German people to overthrow it! That's before the Nazis ends up doing to the German people what their about to do to Eric & co, which they ended up doing anyway in the spring of 1945, if the German masses don't rise up and overthrow them before it's too late!

Watching Underground makes me wish that TCM would do an anthology of great B-movies. Limited budgets imposed constraints on production values -- sound stages and back lots instead of locations, black & white instead of color, character actors in leading roles. What budgets didn't constrain was acting, directing and writing. And what's cool is that there were lots of them, especially from the studio system, where great talent was on staff.I don't think I've seen a wartime propaganda flick that pulls out all the stops quite like this one. Vile Nazis in their spiffy Nazi uniforms, sadism, torture, whips, dungeons, betrayal, sabotage, righteous rants by old professors...all here! Tight production and right casting make this a delicious grand guignol. Despite the grim theme, there are some pretty funny Hogan's Heroes moments. Example: a thuggish Gestapo underling is bragging to his secretary about a ghastly new torture method he's invented and complaining about Himmler's taking the credit. The secretary, who's in the underground, replies, barely containing her sarcasm, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get a promotion."And then, there's the ending, when one must face an excruciating dilemma -- to do something horrible and cruel for the greater good. It's something I don't know if I'd have the courage to do. Would you?