Product Details

• Actors: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Robert Stack
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Warner)
• VHS Release Date: June 30, 1994
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303120490
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,411 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

One of the best American pre-war films to attempt to explain the crisis brewing in Europe, this 1940 MGM film documents the effects of the new Nazi regime on a small, peaceful Alpine village. James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan struggle to understand the unjust changes being forced upon their community by the growing Nazi influence. Helpless to avert the horror unfolding before them, Stewart and Sullavan witness old friends becoming fearful and suspicious. Others cast their lot with the new order and become cruel, jealous, and vengeful--even drunk on Nazi power. The small German village seduced by the corrupt Nazi message is an excellent analogy for what happened in Germany as a whole. At the time, Americans did not want to get involved in another "European war," but films like The Mortal Storm tried to show Americans that what was happening overseas could also happen on Maple Street, USA. --Mark Savary

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars should be seen by all..., July 19, 2001

By 

Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mortal Storm [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This gripping story begins on the the eve of Hitler being named as chancellor in 1933, in a small town at the foot of the German Alps...and how it affects a non Aryan family, and their courageous friend, a veterinarian, played by James Stewart in a wonderful, warm and winning performance...Maria Ouspenskaya is also memorable in the role of his mother.

It's surprising that this film isn't more well known. It has a fascinating cast, and the story keeps one's interest in every scene. The cinematography is excellent, especially towards the end, in a chase scene on skis.

Sad and tender, intense and so well acted, it's a tale that honors freedom of thought and individuality...and shouldn't be missed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Borzage's best., March 19, 2002

By 

"verill" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mortal Storm [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Frank Borzage's 1940 masterpiece "The Mortal Storm" was one of the very first "Anti-Nazi" films Hollywood has produced during WW2.

Despite the fact that "The Mortal Storm" may seem a little bit dated, if not obscure nowadays (always keep in mind this movie features Jimmy Stewart playing a German small town boy!) it nevertheless tells its story with great careness and even greater characterizations, establishing its director, Frank Borzage, as one of the most underrated filmmakers of all time!

Like so many other Hollywood pros from the golden age, like say Michael Curtiz, Raoul Walsh or Howard Hawks, Borzage was one of the key directors who deeply felt for the characters in their movies and who were able to tell a story "straight forward", in a very own and unique kind of way.

Borzage was also a master of the "mise en scene": You only have to watch the camera movements in the "taverne" scenes, and/or the "diner" scenes in the professor's house. Especially the last big scene (my favorite in the whole movie!), when Margaret Sullivan's brother realises how evil the seed has already grown, he turns his face aside, walks behind (!) the camera, the camera takes his place and moves slowly through the professor's house, rests from time to time at various objects and interiors, while voice overs from the main characters are reminding us of the story's most significant events that took place earlier in these rooms and these locations (like the diner scene mentioned above, in which Stack asked for the hand of the professor's daughter, and were they first heard of the news that Hitler took over) and of happier days long gone now (the statue that was handed out to the professor as a birthday present through two of his students). These moments are cinema in its purest form. Really mesmerizing! And when Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan were heading for the Austrian border, spirits of the legendary final scenes from Jean Renoir's "Grand Illusion" come to mind! This says a lot about Frank Borzage's attitude and that was the league he actually played in.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful WWII-era political drama, April 4, 2004

By 

DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mortal Storm [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A chilling and surprisingly effective political drama detailing Germany's transition from a center of European high civilization into the totalitarian paranoia of the Nazi regime. Jimmy Stewart is a free-thinking, kind hearted Everyman, whose best friends turn on him when he refuses Party membership, and whose life and career are destroyed by the people who were once his neighbors and confidants. The sense of horror and surprise at how swiftly things changed is made manifest in this film, which is one of Hollywood's most effective pre-war antifascist propaganda films. Margaret Sullavan plays opposite Stewart, and once again adds a nice touch to her role as the girl he loves, and the daughter of an eminent scientist who runs afoul of the local Nazi fanatics. Robert Stack also appears, so young (and so blond!) that you'll hardly recognize him. A powerful film; well worth watching.