First Comes Courage

Director Dorothy Arzner's final film (finished by Charles Vidor when she fell ill) veers from melodrama into WWII geopolitics, but featured a strong female lead.  In Nazi-occupied Norway, Nicole Larsen (Merle Oberon) is branded a traitor for keeping company with a Nazi officer, while she is in fact a spy.  Her readiness to die, and her renunciation of love to the cause, are worthy notes in Arzner’s swan song.

Columbia Pictures Corp.  Producer: Harry Joe Brown.  Director: Dorothy Arzner.  Screenwriter: Lewis Meltzer, Melvyn Levy.  Cinematographer: Joseph Walker.  Editor: Viola Lawrence.  With: Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, Carl Esmond, Isobel Elsom, Fritz Leiber.  35mm, b/w, 88 min.