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Leofwine_draca COUNTER-ATTACK is a WW2 movie with a unique perspective; the hero is a Russian soldier, played by Hollywood star Paul Muni, best known for his turn in the original SCARFACE. The setting is a bombed-out basement, where Muni takes refuge among a group of German soldiers, one of whom he suspects is a disguised officer; he must seek to identify the man to learn of Nazi plans. Like many older Hollywood films that are based on plays, this one is somewhat stagey and talky, although the premise is a suspenseful one. I did find that it had dated somewhat and there's not quite enough in the way of tension and plot twists to keep it going, so it flags at times.

SimonJack After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, East European sources began putting World War II stories on film. And, some movies that had been made since the 1970s were being released in the West. As a result, most people in the West for the first time saw the contributions Russia had made to help win the war. These films tell stories about the war on the Eastern Front, and the ravages of war on those countries and their people. But there were some movies made much earlier in Hollywood about Russia's fighting Germany. Americans living during World War II would have seen those films. They were produced to show Americans the heroic efforts of the Russians as allies in WW II, and to win public support for the U.S. programs to supply arms and weaponry to Russia. But, unlike other movies produced during the war years, the films on Russia's conflicts with the Germans were not shown as reruns in theaters or on TV beginning in the 1950s. No sooner had the war ended, when Joe Stalin began his power grab to control and enslave many eastern European countries and to oppress and murder his own people. Thus, the former ally in war was now an enemy in peace and a threat to western democracy. So, reruns of wartime propaganda films about the freedom-fighting Russians would conflict with the news of the day and the horrors reported on the Soviet oppression. The Cold War was on.But now the Cold War is more than two decades behind us. With modern technology we can transfer movies from film to DVDs. And, so older films too are now available. One of the best of those is "Counter-Attack," starring Paul Muni. The movie came out in 1945 and is based on a play that ran on Broadway in 1943. A very strong point of the film is that it doesn't portray German soldiers or Russians as buffoons or as ignorant. Indeed, the dialog of the Russians in the early scenes, and of Muni throughout the film, is of intelligent, discerning individuals. While the Germans are the enemy here, none of those individuals portrayed is seen as uneducated. They do come across as menacing and clever. The plot is excellent, and the directing and cinematography are exceptional. Muni plays his role perfectly, and several of the Germans are very good. This is a good propaganda film that put a WW II ally in good standing with Americans. If all Russians were like Muni and the rest of his special unit, we knew we had a competent, tough and capable ally. One worth fighting for and with. This movie is a welcome addition to my WW II film library.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** A bit drawn out and looking a lot more like a play, which the story originally was, then a movie Counter-Attack looks like it was filmed in almost total darkness. With just one or two scenes outside the factory basement, where most of the film takes place, where there was any sunlight at all. Leading an attack on German units across the river a team of Russian commandos are shot to pieces with only two of the group Alexie Kulkov and Lisa Elenko surviving. Trapped underground in a German occupied Russian factory the two Russians, who are the only ones with firearms, find themselves together with seven also trapped German soldier's! That leads to a standoff between the two combatants each trying to get information out of each other. With the hope if they survive or are rescued by their own men it would help in the battle shaping up outside between their two armies.It what later turns out to be a battle of wills the Russian private Kulkov and German officer Von Sturmer who play a deadly game of cat and mouse. Feeling out each others strengths and weaknesses as the fighting goes on outside. With both of them, Kulkov & Von Sturmer, having no idea who's side is not only winning but is in control of the devastated factory where both of them, with their fellow comrades, are trapped in.Not the usual war film that you would have expected with most of the fighting not taking place on screen or among the cast members. Instead concentrating on how fear of the unknown in who's outside, the Germans or Russians, to either save execute or imprison them as well. Lack of sleep also drives the men, and one woman, to the point of madness far more then exploding bombs artillery shells and bullets coming from the other side of the battle-line.What surprised me most about the movie is how it portrayed the German, who were the bad guys in the film, in putting them almost on an equal footing with the Russians, the films good guys, on moral issues. Like being more then ready to gun down each other if members of the opposing side is the first to come to their rescue. Because of the slow pace and darkness it's hard to follow what exactly is happening. There's a confusing scene with Lisa during an attempt by the captured Germans to overpower her. There's also Kulkov when the what little light there was in the cellar, from a flashlight, went out we find her badly injured and even dying from a knife wound. Yet later she seemed to have completely recovered without as as much as a scratch on her only to see her much later on at the very end of the movie being carried out on a stretcher! Again being on the brink of death from her knife wound by the Red Army troops and medics who broke into the cellar to rescue her and Kulkov!The movie was also a little hard to swallow in that one of the Germans soldiers Pvt. Stillman trapped with both Kulkov and Lisa was crazy enough to go over to their side. thinking that it would save his skin. This in the spring of 1942 when the Germans were well on their way, or so it looked at the time, of winning the war against the USSR. Also in regard of the Red Army's brutal treatment, the USSR in fact didn't sign the 1929 Geneva accords in the human treatment of POW's, of German prisoners it made you wounder why Pvt. Sillman would voluntarily give himself up in the first place! It made no sense, unless he just lost his mind, and was driven to become a traitor to his country and fellow German soldier's. With his family back home facing a stay in a German concentration camp and him being shot by the Gestapo or being sent to Siberia by the NKVD if either one got there, the cellar, first!

jmatrixrenegade Recently saw this movie on TCM. Very powerful. It concerns a Russian soldier (Paul Muni) and a female resistance agent (well played by Marguerite Chapman, who I'm not familiar with) trapped in a bombed factory (?) with seven Germans. The director has some better known films, including "Four Feathers." Muni is well known. The others appear to be character actors.It becomes a battle of wills, most of the action taking place in a condensed space -- the small area they are trapped in. But, meanwhile, we also get some excellent shots of the happenings outside in the battlefield and thereabouts. These add a nice touch to the movie, realistically so as well (a sort of newsreel feel in some cases).The movie has a 1945 publication date but is played basically straight. It is always interesting as well when Russians are the good guys.