Everything Is Thunder
The story, starring Constance Bennett and Douglass Montgomery, involves a Canadian POW being hidden by a German citizen during World War I.
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- Cast:
- Constance Bennett , Douglass Montgomery , Oskar Homolka , Roy Emerton , Peggy Simpson , George Merritt , Frederick Piper
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Reviews
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
The chemistry between sweet Berlin street girl Constance Bennett and British soldier Douglas Montgomery makes this World War I melodrama palatable. Montgomery, pretending to be a German soldier, is arrested and sent to a prison camp which he manages to escape from as well. Meeting pretty Bennett on the street, he hides out in her flat where their romance convinces her to escape to Holland with him. But with determined German detective Oscar Homolka on his trail, it becomes two lives at risk. At times, you may wonder if she's really protecting him or setting him up to collect a reward. Or is he using her too in order to get out of harm's way. Depressing, often humorless, this doesn't fully ring true, but there's enough tension in key scenes to bring you back into the romantic obstacles they face. While Bennett's "profession" is never confirmed, key scenes with various "boyfriends" of hers makes it pretty obvious. This is more interesting for the technical achievements than for the writing or directing even though the acting is fine. Then there's the use of a spiritual theme which comes and goes but helps wrap this up in an organ music finale. A church-less wedding sequence arranged by Montgomery is quite romantic, reminiscent of the "One Hand/One Heart" between Tony and Maria in "West Side Story".
Michael Balcon was ever the ambitious producer. In 1934, he decided to make a movie that would play overseas, so he hired a couple of American stars, Constance Cummings and Douglas Montgomery and made a movie about an escaped Prisoner of War falling in love with a poor German girl in this movie. Given the cast and the setting, he hoped this would play in the U.S. and perhaps even Germany.Unfortunately, this movie did not work out as he had hoped. I attribute it to a schmaltzy story and lack of any distinction other than its stars. This production looks like something that John Stahl might have done at Universal. Neither do the stars offer any particular chemistry in this effort.Balcon would keep on trying to crack the American market. He would succeed with Hitchcock ... and lose Hitchcock to Hollywood. It would take greater American familiarity with Britain, gained during the Second World War, and a lighter touch for the Ealing comedies to break into the American market: movies that were successful because they were distinctively British... and funny... and were better movies, too.
Hugh McGrath (Douglass Montgomery) escapes from a German POW camp. He's in big trouble coz not only has he escaped, but he has also killed a German guard in doing so. A nationwide search for him is launched. He makes it to Berlin where he takes shelter with Anna (Constance Bennett). However, Detective Gotz (Oskar Homolka) is never far behind....I felt that more could have happened in the film and I'm not sure what the title means. The acting is fine by all concerned, although it is slightly unbelievable how Anna and Hugh fall in love and marry in such a short space of time. The film is tense during two main sections - the beginning when Hugh makes his escape, and more notably, at the end, once Hugh and Anna make a break for it. In between this, we have quite an empty film with Hugh holed up in Anna's department. Still, it's an OK film - and I didn't expect the sacrifice at the end.
In the 1930s,Gaumont British,under their production head Michael Balcon,decided to have a go at breaking into the American market in a big way.There was of course already a tie up with Twntieth Century Fox who owned part of Gaumont British.However they formed Gaumont British Distributors of America.Alas like many a predecessor and also their successors,The Rank Organisation,they came a cropper.Many of GBs productions from 1934 till their demise in 1937 had American actors and stars.Given that Constance Bennett was just off the top of her career her salary must have been quite substantial aand obviously Montgomery wouldn't have come cheap.So this was a big budget film,not a low budget film by any means.The problem is that these films were still regarded as British on both sides of the Atlantic and that was a turn off for most audiences.It is not a bad film but it just resembles any other First World War film turned out at that time.There was a mini depression in 1937.Guamont British closed the Lime Grove studios,and went out of film production.They were eventually taken over by Rank.The studios were subsequently used during the war by Gainsborough,they were eventually sold to the BBC and there are now a block of flats on the site.The name Gaumont lived on in the name of the cinema chain.By some stroke of fate that last Gaumont was my local at Tally Ho North Finchley which closed in 1980.All other Gaumonts being rebranded as Odeons.So this film was made at the peak of the Gaumont British empire which was to close with the shutting down of my local cinema.