DESPERATE JOURNEY Allied airmen shot down over Germany fight their way back to England. ERROL FLYNN leads RONALD REAGAN and other flyboys in a rousing wartime spirit-lifter. EDGE OF DARKNESS They’re everyday citizens – and extraordinary heroes. Flynn and ANN SHERIDAN rally Norwegians against the Nazi occupiers of their once-peaceful village. NORTHERN PURSUIT Icebound wilds and ice-blooded Nazis! Canadian officer Flynn infiltrates a cadre of saboteurs and guides them toward their destination…and into the unraveling of their scheme. UNCERTAIN GLORY The Gestapo decree: 100 Frenchmen will die if a resistance leader fails to turn himself in. Condemned French prisoner Flynn volunteers to pose as the wanted man. Powerful heroism! OBJECTIVE, BURMA! Pinned down in the jungle – and fighting back! Flynn commands a stranded paratrooper patrol in this gritty, volatile tale noted for its battlefield authenticity.Lewis Milestone was Hollywood’s premier director of war films (starting with his 1930 Academy Award winner All Quiet on the Western Front), and Edge of Darkness is among his finest. Warner Bros.’ biggest star Errol Flynn gets top billing, but his performance–remarkable for its unaccustomed sobriety–is only one admirable part of a strong ensemble. This underscores the theme of a remote Norwegian fishing village of 800 united selflessly in resistance to the 150 German troops garrisoned in their midst during World War II. Robert Rossen’s screenplay is essentially a variation on the sturdy proletarian fables he’d been writing for Warners (the only outright unsympathetic Norwegian is the owner of the cannery!); every character in the large cast is sharply defined, taking his or her place in a nuanced allegory of the myriad ethical, political, and emotional tensions of occupation and resistance.
But what blows you away–besides the dramatic subject matter, the unorthodox Norway setting, and the eruptions of stark violence and atrocity–is Milestone’s powerful direction and ultra-kinetic visuals. A town meeting conducted in the guise of an evening church service, with townsfolk arguing and interacting while continuing to face forward in their pews, is a brilliant set-piece; and throughout the film there are startling uses of a zoom lens (virtually unheard-of at the time), especially in the explosive action climax. To cite only the most stellar performers, Walter Huston and Ruth Gordon play the town doctor and his wife, Judith Anderson is Flynn’s sister (hating herself for loving “good German” Tonio Selwart), Ann Sheridan plays Flynn’s love interest and fellow resistance leader, and Helmut Dantine rattles the rafters as the German commandant, bitter at being stranded in a backwater of the war. Terrific movie. –Richard T. Jameson
Rating: 
(out of 3 reviews)
List Price: $ 49.98
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July 13, 2010
#1
Review by calvinnme
Rating:
Here are the specifications of the extra features. Note the return of the Warner Night at the Movies that was last seen on the Warner Homefront Collection in late 2008. Also note that Objective Burma is a new release but that there are several new features on this new version.
Desperate Journey (1942) – directed by Raoul Walsh
BONUS FEATURES:
Warner Night at the Movies 1942 Short Subjects Gallery:
Vintage Newsreel
Oscar-Nominated Patriotic Short The Tanks Are Coming
Musical Shorts Borrah Minnevitch and His Harmonica School and The United States Army Air Force Band
Classic Cartoon The Dover Boys at Pimento University or the Rivals of Roquefort Hall
Trailers of Desperate Journey and 1942′s Murder in the Big House
Edge of Darkness (1943)-directed by Lewis Milestone
BONUS FEATURES:
Warner Night at the Movies 1943 Short Subjects Gallery:
Vintage Newsreel
Musical Short The United States Service Bands
Classic Cartoons Hiss and Make Up and To Duck….or Not to Duck
Trailers of Edge of Darkness and 1943′s The Hard Way
Northern Pursuit (1943) – directed by Raoul Walsh
BONUS FEATURES:
Warner Night at the Movies 1943 Short Subjects Gallery:
Vintage Newsreel
Wartime Short The Rear Gunner
Musical Short All-Star Melody Masters
Drama Short Over the Wall
Classic Cartoon Hop and Go
Trailers of Northern Pursuit and 1943′s The Constant Nymph
Uncertain Glory (1944) – directed by Raoul Walsh
BONUS FEATURES:
Warner Night at the Movies 1944 Short Subjects Gallery:
Vintage Newsreel
Musical Short Unted States Coast Guard Band
Classic Cartoons Brother Brat and Russian Rhapsody
Trailers of Uncertain Glory and 1944′s The Mask of Dimitrios
Objective, Burma! (1945) – directed by Raoul Walsh
BONUS FEATURES :
2 Classic Warner Brothers Wartime Shorts
1941′s The Tanks are Coming With George Tobias, Richard Travis and Gig Young
1943′s The Rear Gunner with Burgess Meredith and Ronald Reagan
Raoul Walsh Profile
Theatrical Trailer
Commentary by Historians Rudy Behlmer, Jon Burlingame and Frank Thompson
Warner Night at the Movies 1945 Short Subjects Gallery:
Vintage Newsreel
Joe McDoakes Comedy Short So You Think You’re Allergic
Classic Cartoon A Tale of Two Mice
Trailers of Objective, Burma! and 1945′s Pride of the Marines
All of these films have a World War II theme and all five are very good with the exception of “Northern Pursuit” which is ridiculous and – worse for a Flynn film – painfully slow. There have been some disagreements on what I’ve seen for extra features on Objective Burma. Some show the commentary as present, some do not. Overall, I’d recommend this set as a buy, especially if you don’t already own Objective Burma in some form.
July 13, 2010
#2
Review by Roberto Frangie
Rating:
The heroic resistance of the occupied Norway attracted, for some reason, a fair amount of interest, in “The Commandos Strike At Dawn,”
“The Moon Is Down,” and “Edge of Darkness.”
Lewis Milestone, who has made the pacifist “All Quiet on the Western Front, is a key figure in crusading films about war..
His “Edge of Darkness” is a brave and interesting film ,and a touching tribute to Norwegian courage during the Nazi occupation…
The characterization is cleverly drawn: Errol Flynn, the fisherman who assumes command of the resistance in his small Norwegian village; Ann Sheridan, the willful and obstinate daughter of the respected physician Walter Huston who didn’t want to know but is led inexorably to aid the resistance after his innocent daughter is brutally raped by a German soldier; Ruth Gordon, his shy retiring wife, as the neurotic mother who lives in dreams of the past; her greedy brother, the opportunistic businessman Charles Dingle who owns the cannery which employs most of the villagers, a traitor who “deals in facts… The future is with the New Order.”
After the battle between the German garrison and the townspeople, when all his hopes and dreams are shattered, he wanders through the devastated village claiming it as his own: “It’s mine, it’s all mine”, he cries with mad irrational eyes to a German patrol… Of course he is shot down…
Another characters in the movie: John Beal, the weak and traitorous son; an innkeeper (Judith Anderson) whose hatred of the enemy is intensified by their killing of her husband; and a courageous schoolmaster (Morris Carvosky), whose ivory tower is completely smashed…
The most interesting feature of the film is in its declination of social structure… The capitalist Dingle, is recognized by the brutal Nazis; the humble fisherman Flynn becomes the leader of the underground movement…
All the peacetime hierarchies are overturned: the lovely Ann Sheridan is capable to fall in love with Flynn, who, in peacetime, would have been untouchable..
Decision-making is no longer the exclusive right of the town elders, but of everybody… All the villagers must be involved… In the church they gather to decide whether or not to accept British guns and bullets… It is a matter for the villagers to decide by concord of opinion… They talk until they have agreed..
The film ends with the marching into the hills to continue their resistance… Walter Huston stumbles and falls… Flynn and his fiancée rush to help him up… He protests, “I can manage alone!” They persist, and as they hold him between them, Flynn says, “There is no need to walk alone.”
July 13, 2010
#3
Review by Hiram Gomez Pardo
Rating:
Impressive, absorbing and fundamental film during the Nazi take over in Norway. Lewis Milestone was a great director but when he decided to make a war movie something happened. He was provided by a special spell touch. It’s happens the same when John Ford made a Western or Hitchcock a suspense picture. He was possessed by an inner call . There is a Spanish term previously used by Federico García Lorca when he meant that special phenomena. He talked about “to have hobgoblin”. And precisely this is the appropriate term designed to L.M.
An efficient cast completes the whole work.