The Day Will Dawn [The Avengers] *** (1942, Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Hugh Williams, Griffith Jones, Francis L Sullivan) – Classic Movie Review 13,118

The entertaining 1942 British war film The Day Will Dawn [The Avengers] is set in Norway in World War Two, and stars Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Hugh Williams, Griffith Jones, and Francis L Sullivan.

Director Harold French’s entertaining 1942 British war film The Day Will Dawn [The Avengers] is set in Norway during World War Two, and stars Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Hugh Williams, Griffith Jones, and Francis L Sullivan.

The screenplay by Terence Rattigan, Anatole de Grunwald and Patrick Kirwan is based on a story by Frank Owen. Richard Addinsell’s score is performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Muir Mathieson.

The Day Will Dawn is a sincere and successful World War Two wartime flag-waver film about an English foreign correspondent called Colin Metcalfe (Hugh Williams) being placed in neutral Norway, where he assists a plot to blow up German U-boats.

It is fairly routine stuff of the era, but it has dated pretty well. The story is reasonably involving and engaging, and the film is tautly handled and is notable for the performances of the vintage cast, and especially the acting of Ralph Richardson as reporter Frank Lockwood, Deborah Kerr as the noble Norwegian young woman Kari Alstad who befriends Williams, and Francis L Sullivan as the evil Nazi commander, Kommandant Ulrich Wettau.

Interestingly, it was released in the US as The Avengers.

The cast are Hugh Williams as Colin Metcalfe, Griffith Jones as Inspector Gunter, Deborah Kerr as Kari Alstad. Ralph Richardson as Frank Lockwood, Francis L Sullivan as Kommandant Ulrich Wettau, Roland Culver as Commander Pittwaters, Finlay Currie as Captain Alstad, Niall MacGinnis as Olaf, Elizabeth Mann as Gerda, Patricia Medina as Ingrid, Roland Pertwee as Captain Waverley, Henry Oscar as newspaper editor, David Horne as foreign editor Evans, Henry Hewitt as news editor Jack, John Warwick as reporter Milligan, Brefni O’Rorke as political journalist, Bernard Miles as Irish soldier McAllister, Beckett Bould as Bergen, Olaf Olsen as Langedal’s schoolmaster, Gus McNaughton as army sergeant, George Carney as soldier Harry, John Salew as man-in-the-street in pub, Meriel Forbes as barmaid Milly, Philip Friend as pilot, George Merritt as German trawler captain, John Boxer as U-boat commander, John Slater as American reporter in Oslo, Jack Watling as Lieutenant, Valentine Dyall as German guard, Walter Gotell as German soldier,Ronald Adam as Daily Express reporter, George Woodbridge as journalist James Knight as postmaster Fossen, Davis Escott as grocer Hendriksen, Olav Martin Leirvaag as Pastor Lunder, Dennis Wyndham as baker, and Raymond Huntley.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,118

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