SnoopyStyle A group of Soviet guerrillas operate out of a hideout behind enemy lines. Vladimir (Gregory Peck) is the heroic commander. He falls for the civilian dancer Nina Ivanova. A German soldier stumbles upon the hidden camp and is taken prisoner. Nina is horrified with Vladimir's willingness to kill a POW. When the soldier tries to escape, Nina is the one who kills him. Harden partisan Yelena is also in love with Vladimir but she is shot on a mission.This is old fashion melodrama set in backdrop of the war. The Russians are still allies and there is a fair amount of propaganda work involved in this. The most notable is the theatrical debut of Peck. He's among several stage actors involved in this production. He's young, gaunt, and rather commanding. He enters the movie after the first fifteen minutes. Obviously, somebody would have made him the overwhelming star of the film if they knew his legendary career to come. As it is, he is the lead in an ensemble cast.

edwagreen Gregory Peck began his illustrious film career with this 1944 film depicting the Soviet Union defending their land from Nazi invaders. Peck leads a group of partisans who work to do damage to the Germans.This is a story of self-sacrifice on the part of partisans and there is basically no time for tears with destruction reigning in on all of them at every turn.There is time for brief romance between Peck and ballerina Tamara Toumanova, who joins the group and soon shows her mettle in shooting a German soldier.Love for their freedom has the town people sacrifice the life of a 15 year old when they refuse to tell the invading Germans what is about to occur.

MartinHafer This is a rotten film--embarrassingly bad, in fact. This was a piece of pure propaganda that was pure crap. In an attempt to rehabilitate our former enemies, the Russians, into our allies (WWII did create some strange bedfellows), Hollywood produced several horrid films that portrayed the Russians as "just like us", while in fact, their leader was one of the greatest mass murderers in human history. The movie is shameless in how positively it portrays the Russian people--as 100% wonderful and noble. While I do applaud the bravery of those Russians who fought the Germans, it was NOT generally due to love of Stalinism that motivated them, but survival.So is there anything that makes watching this film worth while? Not much, unless you are a REAL film buff. That's because you'll see a very young Gregory Peck BEFORE he was a star. It's amazing that this film didn't end his career outright, but he somehow persevered and went on to become one of our greatest actors. Anyone who fails should use this as a motivating example for life!

Melvin M. Carter The old sitcom Hogan's Heroes with its threat to the inept Col.Klink of being sent the Eastern Front got me interested in why that threat rather than say North Africa, Italy or Western Europe held such terror. The reason: It was hell on Earth! If the forces engaged by the Hitler regime had available for duty in the West there is a chance that WWII in Europe might have ended in late Aug. 1945 with a slim chance that no Allied forces would have had bridgeheads across the Rhine. Thankfully for world history The Wehrmact was ground up in the most vicious modern war campaign of the last century. Perhaps one of the reasons the world isn't( And may it never happen) a nuked out wasteland is the fact that the Soviets had fought a savage four year war on its own home soil and spent the better part of twenty years hiding the damage done to it. A scarred but comparatively healthy Soviet Union might have went to war during the Cuban Missle Crisis with catastrophic results for the world( Paris Hilton the glow in the dark two headed freak come to mind) Back on subject this film along with "Song Of Russia" was an ode to the Russians for now being on the "right" side. The film is dull with too many why we fight/and what we're ready to sacrifice speeches. Peck's partisan band is slowly knocked off until he Moscow Cutie and old peasant from Tevel's village are left waiting to be ground into the snowy steppes as a flaming Nazi tank( Did the screenwriter know something about the sexual habits of certain Nazi types " Himmler you look ravishing in that pink chiffon number") rolls over them. Well Stalin was a brutal dictator but he had hordes of increasingly effective officers and troops engaged with the German Army's best, while another brutal dictator Chiang Kai Shek, led a corrupt regime that strategically didn't do a damn thing to influence the Pacific War.Oh well. The Commie Slavs 1 The Corrupt Triad 0 the film is a two star time filler if say Paris Hilton ain't on