The movie told of the early days of a small town in France under German occupation. How the townsfolk responded and reacted to the shrewd and manipulative German leadership? For one, the mayor and the business owners were speculators and still made good money out of the situation. To the middle class, like the railway executive George (George Sanders), peace was so important that they cooperated with the Germans as much as they disliked them. For most folks, they made do with the scarcity of food and milk by paying a hefty price for petty portions in the black market. Still underground resistance came from the educators (the Jewish headmaster and the beloved school teacher Louise (Maureen O'Hara)), who ensured that the seed of freedom was uninhibited in the minds of the school children, and also the pragmatists, who printed propaganda and orchestrated sabotage.
The one who made the complete transformation was the older school teacher Albert Lory (Charles Laughton) - a mama's boy who was terrified by air raid, choked by smoking a cigarette, shook before the Germans and unable to declare his love for Louise. His unflattering face, timid personality and senior age gave him a big handicap; he was an impossible candidate for a hero. Yet impossibilities were improbable possibilities in desperate times. Imprisoned for allegedly throwing a bomb, released but then accused of being informant for the Germans, death of the actual informant, being put in a murder trial and offered his freedom by the German if he played properly his new role as the new headmaster. Mr. Lory was relieved and accepted this arrangement until he saw the end of the highly respectable formed headmaster. Hereafter, a hero was born.
Charles Laughton not only made the change plausible, he amplified and emphasized it with his superb acting. To his credit, Mr. Lory was as cowardly then as he was heroic now. The two speeches Charles Laughton made in the murder trial, before and after the German's offer, epitomized their lives under the German occupation. His last lesson, albeit a short one, to the school children was his last chance to win them over - for the future of the country lay in their hands. And he delivered the message across the classroom with conviction and contagion, as only a hero could.
Thanks to the director and the script, Mr. Lory evolved not because of his love for Louis but for his country. He needed not be handsome and young to be the leading hero, as present movies would undoubtedly preferred. Maureen O'Hara, as Louise, lent her good sense, strength of character and beauty to make the heroine complete. Una O'Connor, as Mrs. Lory who betrayed a young man for his son's freedom, was impeccable.
More to that, Mr. Lory accused those ruling class, even though from poor background, once assumed power, were reluctant to relinquish what they had at the expense of their countrymen. How true this still is from developing to developed countries all over the world. Should countrymen resort to sabotage so that foreign occupiers were engaged at all fronts and stretched thin? This is a double-edged sword which could work against the evil as well as the peacekeeping force. This is a movie who raised provoking questions rather than offering solutions.
The one who made the complete transformation was the older school teacher Albert Lory (Charles Laughton) - a mama's boy who was terrified by air raid, choked by smoking a cigarette, shook before the Germans and unable to declare his love for Louise. His unflattering face, timid personality and senior age gave him a big handicap; he was an impossible candidate for a hero. Yet impossibilities were improbable possibilities in desperate times. Imprisoned for allegedly throwing a bomb, released but then accused of being informant for the Germans, death of the actual informant, being put in a murder trial and offered his freedom by the German if he played properly his new role as the new headmaster. Mr. Lory was relieved and accepted this arrangement until he saw the end of the highly respectable formed headmaster. Hereafter, a hero was born.
Charles Laughton not only made the change plausible, he amplified and emphasized it with his superb acting. To his credit, Mr. Lory was as cowardly then as he was heroic now. The two speeches Charles Laughton made in the murder trial, before and after the German's offer, epitomized their lives under the German occupation. His last lesson, albeit a short one, to the school children was his last chance to win them over - for the future of the country lay in their hands. And he delivered the message across the classroom with conviction and contagion, as only a hero could.
Thanks to the director and the script, Mr. Lory evolved not because of his love for Louis but for his country. He needed not be handsome and young to be the leading hero, as present movies would undoubtedly preferred. Maureen O'Hara, as Louise, lent her good sense, strength of character and beauty to make the heroine complete. Una O'Connor, as Mrs. Lory who betrayed a young man for his son's freedom, was impeccable.
More to that, Mr. Lory accused those ruling class, even though from poor background, once assumed power, were reluctant to relinquish what they had at the expense of their countrymen. How true this still is from developing to developed countries all over the world. Should countrymen resort to sabotage so that foreign occupiers were engaged at all fronts and stretched thin? This is a double-edged sword which could work against the evil as well as the peacekeeping force. This is a movie who raised provoking questions rather than offering solutions.