This Land Is Mine (1943, Jean Renoir)

A cheesy propaganda movie, but a moving one in the end. Charles Laughton (between Rembrandt and The Big Clock) is a schoolteacher, living with his mum and keeping his head down during nazi occupation in a town that looks very much like a set. His neighbor (Laughton’s Jamaica Inn costar Maureen O’Hara) has a brother (Kent Smith of Cat People) who is outwardly friendly to the Germans while sabotaging their trains, and now the race is on to find the saboteur before they kill a bunch of random townspeople in retribution. Movie gets good in the second half when it starts getting into the morality of people helping the Germans to various degrees. “The occupation – any occupation in any land – is only possible because we are corrupt.” Super-conservative anti-union nazi lover George Sanders sees the error of his ways and shoots himself instead of marrying Maureen, Laughton is blamed for the shooting, and stands up for himself and his people in court on his way to execution. The Mayor explains…

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