The Day Will Dawn
| The Day Will Dawn | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster for the American release
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| Directed by | Harold French |
| Produced by | Paul Soskin (associate) |
| Written by |
Story: Frank Owen Screenplay: Anatole de Grunwald Patrick Kirwan Terence Rattigan |
| Starring |
Ralph Richardson Deborah Kerr Hugh Williams Griffith Jones |
| Music by |
Richard Addinsell orchestrated Roy Douglas |
| Cinematography | Cyril J. Knowles |
| Edited by | Michael C. Chorlton |
| Distributed by |
General Film Distributors (UK) Paramount Pictures (US) |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Day Will Dawn, released in the US as The Avengers, is a 1942 war film set in Norway during World War II. It stars Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Hugh Williams and Griffith Jones, and was directed by Harold French from a script written by Anatole de Grunwald, Patrick Kirwan and Terence Rattigan, based on a story by Frank Owen. The music by Richard Addinsell was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Muir Mathieson.
As the Germans invade Poland in September 1939, the former horse racing-correspondent Metcalfe is placed as a foreign correspondent in neutral Norway. Eight months later, he meets a Norwegian fisherman called Alstad in a sailors' bar, where a scuffle breaks out between British and Norwegian sailors (singing "Rule Britannia", egged on by Metcalfe) and German ones (singing the Nazi Party anthem the "Horst-Wessel-Lied"). Alstad takes him aboard his boat during a sea voyage in Norway's territorial waters, during which they sight the Altmark and are fired upon by a German U boat, despite Norway's neutrality. They then come back to his home port of Langedal, and Metcalfe goes to Oslo to report this to the British embassy there, despite the best efforts of the German Kommandant and the German-sympathising local police chief Gunter. There Metcalfe meets Lockwood en route back to England from the Winter War in Finland. It was Lockwood who had got him the foreign correspondent job at the outbreak of war, but he now passes on the news to Metcalfe that he has been fired from it for sailing out with the fisherman rather than staying on dry land where the paper can contact him. Metcalfe informs the embassy, and also warns his paper of signs that a German war on Norway is imminent. Alstad's daughter Kari (who had accompanied them on their voyage) also meets him to tell him of suspicious German merchant ships at Bergen which her father suspects have troops on board.
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Wikipedia