Underground (1941/Roan Group)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C     Film: B-

 

 

The Film Noir era began in 1941 and the kind of new realism that surfaced can be immediately found in Vincent Sherman’s semi-Noir drama Underground.  The story involves The Nazis doing whatever they can to break the title resistance against their new take-over operations in Germany.  They will threaten anything and even act on those threats to get what they want and the film is remarkable in its ability for its time to pull no punches.

 

There are brutal people and to be this explicit about it early on (within the Production Code) is one of the reasons this is such a gem.  That it was onto just how bad things really were is remarkable in many ways.  That the film is so entertaining is a plus.  The story involves a Nazi soldier (Jeffrey Lynn) who falls for a young lady (Kaaren Vern) who may or may not be involved with subversive activities.  Little does he know that his brother (Philip Dorn) is the one leading such a movement.  Then there is the little @#$%&^ Nazi head (Martin Kosleck) who will stop at nothing to get what he wants through ruthless power.  There are actually politically correct morons who would criticize the film for being so decisive on its characterizations, but historians who know better would say it was the very beginning of the admission of an evil cinema was just beginning to capture.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is a bit on the soft side, but as good as any copy on DVD to date.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is a few generations down, but the film is still watchable.  Extras include two featurette interviews, one with director Sherman and the other with Troma/Roan owner Lloyd Kaufmann, some trailers for other titles from the company, production notes and a look at the Sherman filmmaking scrapbook.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo