So much average

Disturbing yet enthralling

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

"So Ends Our Night" is an anti-Nazi film based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque--the man whose works were banned by the Party due to his insistence in his writings (such as "All Quiet on the Western Front") that war was not at all fun but actually quite bad (imagine that!). As he himself had been forced to flee Nazi Germany, it's not at all surprising that this story is all about German expatriates who also fled the nation for their lives. The film came out 10 months before the US entered WWII and was actually among the first to be critical of the fascists. Despite the war in Europe having been raging for a year and a half, the US film industry was very slow to produce films condemning the Nazis--mostly due to stupid anti-First Amendment legislation that forced neutrality in films.The film stars three actors who didn't seem the least bit German--Frederic March, Glenn Ford and Margaret Sullavan. And so, it seemed more like three Americans trapped in Europe. However, despite being strong American accents (which is odd, as the supporting characters all have European accents), the actors did a fine job in the film and the story was compelling.As for the story, it's about three people who have fled Germany and are forced to wander about Europe, as they have no passports and are always one step away from deportation (where it would mean almost certain death). The three did not know each other until their exile but are now becoming good friends--thanks to the bind of shared misery. Again and again it looks as if one of them might somehow escape but repeatedly their efforts to legally remain outside Germany are thwarted. I was surprised, however, that March was given a much smaller role than Ford, as in 1941 Glenn Ford was definitely a newcomer and March was an established star.While this is a very good film, I couldn't help but notice that there were a few better anti-Nazi films from the same era--in particular, "Mortal Storm" (also starring Sullavan) and "Arise My Love". Still, it was quite compelling and I am sure it did a lot to solidify the American public towards the notion of one day joining in the war.

So Ends Our Night is based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel Flotsam which describes the plight of refugees in Europe, dislocated from their homes and sometimes families as a result of the politics of tyrannical European states, specifically Nazi Germany. Any place they went the refugees were not welcomed becoming a drag on the economy of any place they lived. The film concentrates on a group of several now stateless Germans who seem to keep running into each other. The novel came out in 1939 before a formal war started, but the German intentions were becoming clearer every day.Specifically it concentrates on Fredric March who was an underground member in Germany who had to leave in a hurry, he could not take his ill wife Frances Dee. March becomes a surrogate parent to both Glenn Ford and Margaret Sullavan who find a difficult path to love when they're first concern is survival.Previous to So Ends Our Night coming out, Remarque novels such as All Quiet On The Western Front and Three Comrades were filmed with marked success by both Universal and MGM. All Quiet On The Western Front won a Best Picture Oscar and a Best Director Oscar for Lewis Milestone and Three Comrades got good critical reviews in 1938. Margaret Sullavan was in Three Comrades and she was the love interest of one of the comrades, Robert Taylor. Would that So Ends Our Night was as good.The performances by the players were all good, Glenn Ford was lent out from Columbia Pictures for his first A film and got great reviews as a tender callow youth. He and Sullavan seemed to have good chemistry, but the film lacked the production values that a major studio could have given it. And the script seems to drag and the direction is sluggish.Margaret Sullavan who specialized in playing tragic heroines who are escaping from the Nazis, she just came off doing The Mortal Storm for MGM which is about folks about to become refugees. Compare that film with MGM quality on it to this one and you'll see what I'm talking about. According to a biography about her by Lawrence Quirk she resented the way the title was changed, preferring that it be called by the novel's rightful name. This name implied all kinds of innuendo that the film never delivered. True, but that was a common enough practice back in the day. And So Ends Our Night needed any and all help to get the movie going public into the theater.In that same book Fredric March and Glenn Ford both praised Sullavan's abilities and considered a milestone to have been able to work with her. Sullavan in fact got director John Cromwell to direct Ford as a callow and clumsy youth in matters of love whereas he'd come off like Cary Grant in earlier takes. I think she was on target there.Still the film definitely needed major studio backing to have put it over better.

The mind-numbing horror of Fascism in Germany was bad enough, even before the ultimate horror of the Holocaust was eventually made known, and "So Ends Our Night" was an extremely brave attempt in 1941 to bring home to the people of the USA, (before they entered WW2), the extent of repression and State-sanctioned bigotry that Nazi Germany had imposed on its people from the 30s onwards. Set within the context of a conventional Hollywood drama, it nevertheless pulled few punches and showed how tyrannical governments subject their people by gradually increasing degrees, and how freedom is eroded rather than outlawed overnight. Seeing it with post-Holocaust eyes makes its warning that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, even more powerful and cogent, and it is a film that also manages to show that it is not governments that "bestow" freedom, but the determination and will of people themselves to maintain it. Well directed by John Cromwell, and with excellent performances from Frederic March and Margaret Sullivan, (who particularly seems to infuse her performance with genuine conviction), with welcome appearances from Anna Sten (a much better actress than has ever been fully recognised), and Erich von Stroheim, as well as a very young Glenn Ford. Although seldom remembered nowadays, this is a film that is well worth seeking out, and I don't think you will be disappointed if you do so. Highly recommended, and long overdue for critical rehabilitation.

I would recommend this film to be watched by anyone. I first saw it at a teenager and have never forgotten it. The film handled a hopeless situation in a very humane and touching way. With the problems in Kosovo now the film is just as up to date as it was in 1941 when it was made. I would give this film a 10+ rating in my opinion.