Underground (1941)

This movie was made before the US entry into WWII. But, the story line clearly indicates the concerns we had with the Nazi party in Germany and their blatant disregard for the well being of their citizenry. There are no war scenes and only a couple of short action sequences but, despite this, the story moves at a very comfortable pace. Very good acting all around with Philip Dorn excelling as the leader of an underground group striving to keep the citizens informed as to the real aims of their Nazi leaders. He does this via a clandestine illegal radio operation which, of necessity, must continually move to various locales to transmit. Jeffrey Lynn plays Dorn's brother, a German soldier who, minus most of his left arm, returns home but is still a loyal German who is unaware of his brother's underground activities. This story is a good one and avoids most of the cliches that permeated many similar WWII movies. Martin Kosleck plays his usual role, that of an officious German officer but, even he, tones down his role and does not appear as menacing as he later became in other similar films. I enjoyed this 95 minute story and definitely recommend it to all fans of the suspense melodrama genre.