Product Details

• Actors: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan
• Directors: Frank Borzage
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000KCW9N4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #330,524 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

University professor Victor Roth leads a contented life with family and friends in the south German Alps of 1933. This changes quickly and dramatically once Adolf Hitler comes to power. Most of the town embraces the new creed while a few friends such as Martin Breitner do not. Victor himself is "non-Aryan" and his two step-sons soon leave his house, while his loyal daughter Freya breaks her engagement from Nazi-inclined Fritz. Against increasing difficulties an attachment between Freya and Martin starts to grow.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sleeper Classic, April 24, 2008

By 

Robert Butler "Pastor Bob" (Belmont, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mortal Storm (1940) (Import Edition - NTSC format - Region 1 - Playable in North America) (DVD)

This is one of the greatest movies ever made. The character development, storyline, and growing tension all combine for a must-see. Almost every actor/actress deliver exceptional performances, led of course by Jimmy Stewart. It is a stunningly sad, yet noble story that takes place as the Nazis destroy warm families, lifelong friends, and intellectual inquiry. I hope this makes it onto DVD since it is a valuable time capsule portraying events that must never be forgotten.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Undiscovered Treasure--See This One, January 19, 2010

By 

K. Laurey (Clark Mills, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

It's amazing how few reviews were found for this film....but then, it isn't. There are lots of absolute gems that modern classic-movie buffs often miss, for whatever reason---"Mortal Storm" doesn't often show up on the lists of usual must-sees, but it should. This picture is chillingly real---even with the MGM treatment, it's a realistic portrayal of what the horrors of World War II did to nice, decent, everyday people. It's tragic, but so well acted that you can't take your eyes off it. Margaret Sullavan was a huge star in the 30's and 40's, and this role shows her at her best. The lady had talent, and she will take you on a roller-coaster ride of emotions. Initially, you may not picture James Stewart as a Polish boy, but he does the job well----(more than once, in fact--remember "Shop Around the Corner"?)
Here he's the principled young man who loves her despite being in mortal danger. Frank Morgan turns in his usual top-quality support as Sullavan's stepfather, and--surprise--you'll end up hating good old "Father Knows Best"/"Marcus Welby" star Robert Young. If you have any love of good classic film at all--do not miss this.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rating for quality of Warner Archive print - not movie, June 19, 2011

By 

Khurram Sheikh - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Mortal Storm (DVD)

It is a discgrace that Warner would release such a lousy print of such a great movie. The movie is one of Jimmy Stewart's hard to find movies - I actually have it on VHS and as a movie, it deserves 5 stars.

However, the print from Warner Archives is horrible. I was excited at being able to get some movies that were not on DVD before through warner archives and made the mistake of ordering 4 films. I already had 3 on VHS, but wanted them on DVD.

One of my purchases is The Mortal Storm - a great WWII drama. THis is one of Jimmy Stewart's finest films, despite being lessor known by some causal fans and its unfortunate that Warner doesn't see fit to give it a proper release. Unfortunately, the Warner Archive release picture quality is probably worse then then my VHS tape and is clearly MUCH worse then the print quality you would see when the Turner Classic movie channel plays it on TV from time to time. While the picture quality of the Mortal Storm was slightly better then Mr. Lucky (another great film -lousy transfer, that I also reviewed), it is far below what a film of this quality deserves.

It is disgraceful not only for Warner to be giving such crappy transfers to great films, but it is equally disgraceful to charge classic movie fans for films that have worse print quality then what the would see on TV when TCM plays the films and even worse then the old VHS tape was!!!

I've still got around 200 classic films on VHS and another 500 or so classics now on DVD/Blu-Ray, however I will NOT be purchasing any more Warner Classic films, even though there were around 50 or 60 titles I was interested in picking up - many of which I used to have on VHS and some that weren't available on VHS before.

I know a lot of people are just happy to see some of the Warner Archive titles on DVD, but as the paying public, we should not be supporting their hosing us by putting out such crappy quality of some of the best movies made!!