Best movie of this year hands down!

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Having seen this movie version of the novel by Phyllis Bottome many times, I had not realized that this would be very potent and reflect the goings on of civilization in my lifetime. This is set during the rise of Hitler and immediately afterwards as the power and terror he sets on the German people creates fear in those who are either not Aryan or opposed to the Nazi's methods. Decent young men turn into monsters overnight as the humiliations of the past decades after the first world war creates a desire for change that can only be achieved through a mad man. A beloved university professor (Frank Morgan), honored on his 60th birthday for the desire to pass on his immense knowledge, finds that one night of tribute for a lifetime of work is wiped out by the announcement that Hitler has just been made chancellor. I could imagine featured actress Esther Dale biting her tongue as her character expressed joy over announcing the news, with Morgan's stepsons (Robert Stack and William T. Orr) overjoyed, as well as longtime family friend Robert Young. Morgan's daughter (Margaret Sullavan) is aware that this means trouble, as does their pacifist friend James Stewart. Stewart's pacifist nature is immediately questioned, but his determination and belief that "peace is better than war" sustains him even though he knows that war is most likely imminent. It's sooner rather than later that the students who previously praised Morgan are boycotting his class (leaving threats to those who remain), and the scene is soon followed by the horrific burning of books. This is a hard film to watch at times because it is darker than most of the films that showed the atrocities going on pre American involvement. This is much needed propaganda lead Americans to the realization that pretty soon, their own young would be needed to fight for freedom as country after country fell under the evil of fascism. The film covers the attempts of Morgan, wife Irene Rich and daughter Sullavan to attempt to leave Germany as quickly as possible, but as we came to learn, that was not always possible under the evils of the government's wide eye. The friendships that Stewart, Young, Stack, Orr and a young Dan Dailey (particularly vicious as the youth leader) grew up depending on were all destroyed within days, and in retrospect, it's a very sad story on that level, on the level of inhumanity, on the shock of sudden change and constant fear, and on the insinuation that many of these young men knew that they were doing wrong, but out of fear or misguided loyalty to their old friends felt that they must go along. A telling example is between Orr and Stack where one of them begins to question what they are doing, leading to a horrifying reaction from the other. Young Bonita Granville, as Ouspenskaya's servant girl, shows the most fear, something she lost a few years later when she appeared in the exploitation drama "Hitler's Children".The snowy scenery of the Alps and the surrounding area is gorgeously photographed, and this is brilliantly directed by the magnificent Frank Borzage. Every single performance is superb, with Morgan winning your heart the moment he steps up to begin his class and realizes that it won't be a normal day as it is evident that the crowd inside the auditorium is larger than normal. But the horror that crosses his face after being sung happy birthday to by the sudden announcement is just the beginning. This is not the flibbertigibbet Morgan of his many "Wizard of Oz" like characters; He's devoted to his entire family, some of whom are not related by blood, and as the horrors continue to surround him, the pained look in his face shows a man defeated by obstacles he believed he would never see in his lifetime. Rich is very subtle as his loyal wife. Sullavan, who had a different type of snowy scenery with Stewart in the same year's "The Shop Around the Corner", shows an underlying strength, an integrity, and she's a heroine to root for. Young and Stewart are the two male leads, and while it's shocking to see Young playing a Nazi, he is sensational in the part, as if he knew that the only way to portray this character was to go into it full force. Stewart seems too all American to me to be fully believable in the part, too Mr. Smith to be German, even a pacifist one. But it's an important film in his career, one he played obviously because he believed in the film and its message.The sudden twist of the young men into vicious Nazi's reminds me of the division of the United States today over liberal and conservative causes. Where Americans used to have the capacity to "agree to disagree", we now fight and argue anonymously over every single news item, whether allegedly true or "alternative facts". It's a slower revolution than what was going on in Germany from 1933 on, but it is equally scary, with people branded in unfavorable lights simply by disagreeing over what's going on in the new government. The passive/aggressive way this is happening doesn't seem based on any particular leaders interference, but like those loyal to Hitler in 1933, those either for or against the leaders today are so passionately hateful towards those with whom they do not agree. We were supposed to learn from the travesty's of World War II that only through freedom and the ability to express our thoughts without fear of repercussion could we maintain a civilization free of a bully leader like Hitler. Yes, watching this 77 year old movie brings up all those thoughts and more, and that is the power of cinema. Without films like "The Mortal Storm", we would have nothing to look back to in order to guide us to a hopefully better future.

The teaming of Frank Morgan, Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart plus Europe proved a winning parlay for MGM in 1940 so much so that they shot them in two movies European-set back to back that year, The Shop Around The Corner and The Mortal Storm, in each case surrounding them with fine supporting actors. 'Shop' was an out-and- out delight and retains both its charm and appeal to this day. This one, every inch as great in terms of quality is dated by its propaganda content whilst ironically up-to-date in its tacit warning of how pure evil is insidious. It's of its time inasmuch as Borzage chooses to open not only in 1933 but on the very day that Hitler is elected Chancellor and neo-Nazis would argue that he stacks the deck by presenting a microcosm of Germany via a typical family on a day when they ate supremely happy, patriarch Frank Morgan's 60th birthday, marked by both colleagues and students at the small university where he holds a Professor's chair and by his family and close friends in a dinner at home, where the news of Hitler's triumph in the election is heard on the radio. From that moment, of course, both family and nation begin to fragment, but because the film was made in 1940, the first full year of a war that would last for six, it can only guess at the darkness ahead. In retrospect it is remarkably accurate at depicting both the national susceptibility to the ravings of a charismatic madman and the brutal, callous, harsh, ruthless streak running through its Hitler youth embodied beautifully in the Robert Young character who finally gives the order to fire on the girl to whom he was once engaged, fleeing to safety in Austria with one of the closest friends of his youth. The acting across the board is beyond praise and given that I've just watched the DVD in January, 2016, it stands up remarkably well.

so disappointing. I'm a fan of war and spy movies and i was so anxious to see this one. I bought it and after 30 minutes of watching i shook my head and said....what a disaster. The acting is bad and all cast seem to throw out their lines to get get home as quick as possible. James Stewart is bland and margaret sullivan acts like a puppet on a string. the story line could have been interesting but was going all directions we see Granville for 5 minutes.......M organ doesn't come back...YET we see endless close up of fake skiing...and that seems to last for an eternity. Gave it a 2...for Frank Morgan....and beautiful mountains. WHAT a simply poor waste of time.

Powerful anti-Nazism, anti-fascism drama.Follows the lives of a German family and their friends as Hitler comes to power in the 1930s, and the results of this change. Explores very directly the effects of Nazi rule, how freedoms are lost and the right to be different and think differently is destroyed. Shows very vividly the effect of group-think/mob-think and the cult of personality.Yes, it was made during World War 2, so is to some extent a propaganda movie. However, the themes explored can be applied to any fascist country.Can be compared to Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator", which was released in the same year. While Chaplin used satire and comedy to mock the Nazis, this movie is pure drama, and stands alongside The Great Dictator in exposing the evil that was Nazism.