Films of Nazi Germany-Concentration Camp Scenes

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21187, 9 August 1940, Page 8

Films of Nazi Germany-Con-centration Camp Scenes

The problem of making picture* with a war angle, or dealing generally with the political situation, is becoming increasingly difficult as hostilities spread. To maintain even a semblance of “neutrality” is almost impossible. The war position shifts so quickly, too, that some films in the making become out of date before they can be completed. It is going to be difficult to keep track of the various films dealing with the fate of unfortunates in Germany. Among those M.G.M. have in production is “Mortal Storm,” from Phyllis Bottome’s novel. They plan to follow this with “Escape,” by Ethel Vance—the tale of a famous singer who is tricked into returning to her homeland, then placed in a concentration camp and sentenced to death by the Nazis for treason. In “Doctors Don’t Tell”—a story on the same lines which Republic are making—Sigrid Gurie takes the part of Leni, daughter of a Viennese physician. This is specially interesting because, since it was discovered Sigrid was born in Brooklyn and not in Norway, as Sam Goldwyn wished people to believe when he starred her with Gary Cooper in “The Adventures of Marco Polo,” she has almost been forgotten by producers, and has made but one picture, “Rio,” for Universal. Now she is to have another try, playing opposite John Wayne. The story of “Mortal Storm” deals with the period of 1933-35, when Hitlerism began to dominate Germany. The central characters are a college professor, his son, his daughter and her sweetheart. The professor is a Jew, scholarly and gentle, whose pupils desert him one by one. His daughter’s sweetheart joins the Storm Troopers. The professor is thrown into a concentration camp, where he dies. The family is broken up. When the girl’s former sweetheart tries to rescue her from Nazi cruelty, both are shot just as they are about to escape to happiness across the border. Two technical directors engaged on this picture are former German residents who have had first-hand experience of Nazi methods, and the scenes in the concentration camp are not of the milk 'and water type.