Days of Glory (1944) - Turner Classic Movies

Brief Synopsis

Russian freedom fighters battle the Nazi occupying forces.

Cast & Crew

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Jacques Tourneur

Gregory Peck

Lowell Gilmore

Maria Palmer

Alan Reed

Hugo Haas

Photos & Videos

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Days Of Glory - (Original Trailer)

Film Details

Also Known As

Revenge

Genre

War

Adventure

Classic Hollywood

Drama

Romance

Release Date

Jan 1944

Premiere Information

World premiere in Pennsylvania: 8 Jun 1943

Production Company

RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Distribution Company

RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Country

United States

Location

Cedar City, Utah, United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 25m

Sound

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color

Black and White

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.37 : 1

Film Length

7,723ft

Synopsis

In the fall of the first year of World War II, Hitler's armies traverse the Russian highways enroute to Leningrad and Stalingrad. Alongside the roads, in the stillness of the great forests, Russian guerrilla soldiers wait, determined to drive the invaders from their soil. In one of the guerrilla groups are Vladimir, the leader; Semyon, a former professor who now serves as Vladimir's adjutant; Yelena, a girl from the factories who is in love with Vladimir; Sasha, an amiable drunk; Fedor, a blacksmith; Dmitri, a farmer; Petrov, the "silent" one; and sixteen-year-old Mitya and his little sister Olga, who cooks for the group. Upon returning from headquarters one day, Vladimir learns that the group has given refuge to Nina, a beautiful woman found wandering in the war-ravaged countryside. When they question Nina about what skills she can contribute, she volunteers that she was once a ballerina in the Moscow theater. Jealous and contemptous of the elegant Nina, Yelena urges Vladimir to send her away. Later, Vladimir confides to Petrov that when they receive the coded message "the snow will fall" they will be launched on a mission that will cost them their lives. As Vladimir plans his strategy, Mitya tells Nina of the destruction of his village and murder of his father by the Nazis. To comfort Mitya, Nina begins to dance for him, but her performance is interrupted by a German soldier. When Olga throws boiling liquid at the soldier, Mitya grabs his rifle and captures him. Vladimir is about to kill the German when Nina cries out, and Semyon convinces him to grant the soldier a trial. Afterward, Nina confides to Semyon that she feels like an outsider and he offers her encouragement. While alone in the hideout the next day, Nina is attacked by the German soldier and she shoots him in self-defense. Her actions win Vladimir's acceptance and admiration, and he invites her to accompany him on a raid to blow up a German ammunition train. After their mission is completed, Vladimir embraces Nina. When she questions his lust for killing Germans, he explains that before the war, he was an engineer who built a great dam which he later was forced to destroy to prevent the Germans from taking it. Nina then comforts Vladimir and makes him promise never to send her away. The two spend the night together in the woods, causing the others to become jealous and angry. When Vladimir learns that he must send a woman through German lines to deliver a message about the strength and location of the German troops, he faces a moral dilemma because of his love for Nina. Vladimir assigns the dangerous mission to Yelena, who leaves camp feeling rejected. As Yelena meets her death along the trail, Nina awakens, sensing danger. Vladimir tells her that she has taught him to love life again but when Yelena's horse returns to his corral with his saddle stained with blood, Nina volunteers to deliver the message. Vladimir sends Mitya to guard her, arranging to meet them at a house in a neighboring village. Their mission is a success and Nina returns with the message "the snow will fall tomorrow." Soon after, German soldiers arrive at the house and arrest Mitya. Upon learning that the boy has been sentenced to hang, Nina begs Vladimir to intercede, but he refuses because they must mobilize the following day. Nina watches helplessly as the Germans put a noose around Mitya's neck, but when he sees her, he meets his death with a smile on his face and defiance on his lips. After Nina tells Olga that her brother died a hero, Vladimir orders her to take the girl to safety, explaining that their mission is to draw the German tanks away from the front and that a little girl has no place there. As members of the group perish in the line of fire, Semyon and Vladimir draw the German tanks to their hideout. At that moment, Nina returns to the group, and with the tanks approaching, she takes the soldier's oath. As Nina swears final victory over the enemy, the burning tanks obliterate their stronghold.

Director

Jacques Tourneur

Cast

Gregory Peck

Lowell Gilmore

Maria Palmer

Alan Reed

Hugo Haas

Igor Dolgoruki

Edward Durst

Glenn Vernon

Dena Penn

Tamara Toumanova

Lou Crosby

William Challee

Joseph Vitale

Erford Gage

Ivan Triesault

German lieutenant

Maria Bibikov

Edgar Licho

Gretl Dupont

Peter Helmers

Gene Reading

Rudolph Lindau

German sergeant

Charles Faber

German corporal

Sonny Boy Williams

Peter Seal

Crew

Daniele Amfitheatrof

C. Bakaleinikoff

Mel Berns

Carroll Clark

Albert S. D'agostino

William Dorfman

Assistant Director

Tony Gaudio

Director of Photography

Mordecai Gorelik

Production Design

George Johansen

Technical Advisor

Melchior Lengyel

Harley Miller

Joseph Noriega

Leonid Raab

Renié

Casey Robinson

Casey Robinson

Wrt for the Screenplay by

Casey Robinson

Darrell Silvera

James G. Stewart

Richard Van Hessen

Vernon L. Walker

Special Effects

Videos

Days Of Glory - (Original Trailer) Russian freedom fighters battle Nazi oppressors, in the original trailer for Days Of Glory, 1944, Gregory Peck starring in his first Hollywood film, directed by Jacques Tourneur.

Film Details

Also Known As

Revenge

Genre

War

Adventure

Classic Hollywood

Drama

Romance

Release Date

Jan 1944

Premiere Information

World premiere in Pennsylvania: 8 Jun 1943

Production Company

RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Distribution Company

RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Country

United States

Location

Cedar City, Utah, United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 25m

Sound

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color

Black and White

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.37 : 1

Film Length

7,723ft

Award Nominations

Best Special Effects

1945

Articles

Days of Glory

January 27, 2005

If for no other reason, Days of Glory (1944) is significant as the motion picture debut of Gregory Peck. The young actor had caught the attention of screenwriter Casey Robinson (and more than a few theatergoers) while performing in an Emlyn Williams play on Broadway. When Robinson decided to cast all unknown newcomers in this RKO production about brave Russian guerilla fighters defending their homeland from the Nazis, he thought of Peck. Although the subsequent film failed to register very strongly with either critics or audiences, Peck did. He and his agent knew Hollywood needed strong, bankable leading men with so many of its male stars off to war (Peck was designated 4F due to a spine injury) and held out for the most advantageous deals. Peck had turned down a few lucrative long-term contracts from the major studios in favor of a four-picture/four-year agreement with Robinson, which he figured would allow him to return to the theater. But quickly finding himself hailed as everything from a new Gable to a new Gary Cooper, Peck was given the full star treatment and a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his second screen appearance in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944). Gregory Peck was truly an instant star and stayed one until his death in 2003.

The transition to the screen from the stage wasn't without its challenges, however. Peck considered his own performance amateurish and never wanted to see Days of Glory again after its release. Furthermore, because he was trained for the theatre, he had to be coached by director Jacques Tourneur to "common up" his precise diction and stop projecting. Tourneur had the opposite problem with Peck's leading lady, Tamara Toumanova, a star of George Ballanchine's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. This was the dancer's first screen appearance in a speaking park, and she spoke so softly she could barely be picked up by the microphones. Playing a ballet dancer who at first reluctantly joins the Russian partisans, Toumanova's gifts as an actress were limited at best. Wisely, she limited herself to only a handful of motion pictures over the next two dozen years, even then appearing mostly in dancing parts. She married Robinson shortly after the release of Days of Glory.

The picture was also Robinson's debut as a producer. A noted screenwriter for years at Warner Brothers, he wrote the screenplays for six Bette Davis hits, contributed (uncredited) to Casablanca (1942), and was Oscar-nominated® for the swashbuckler that made Errol Flynn a star, Captain Blood (1935). Robinson continued to write for many important films (Saratoga Trunk (1945), The Snows of Kilimanjaro, 1952) while continuing in a less successful capacity as producer.

Days of Glory also introduced a portly little Czech character actor, Hugo Haas, to American audiences. When the Nazis invaded his country, Haas fled to America, taking jobs as announcer of U.S. radio broadcasts to the Eastern European underground and narrator of propaganda films. Although he continued to appear in front of the camera for the remainder of his career, Haas began writing, producing and directing his own productions, independent films he tried to model on European styles and which stand today as some of the most curious and idiosyncratic films of the 1950s.

Days of Glory was based on a story by Melchior Lengyel, whose other stories formed the basis for the films Ninotchka (1939) and To Be or Not to Be (1942). The film also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Special Effects.

Director: Jacques Tourneur
Producer: Casey Robinson
Screenplay: Casey Robinson, based on a story by Melchior Lengyel
Cinematography: Tony Gaudio
Editing: Joseph Noriega
Art Direction: Carroll Clark, Albert S. D'Agostino
Original Music: Daniele Amfitheatrof
Cast: Gregory Peck (Vladimir), Tamara Toumanova (Nina), Lowell Gilmore (Semyon), Maria Palmer (Yelena), Hugo Haas (Fedor).
BW-86m. Closed captioning.

by Rob Nixon

Days Of Glory

Days of Glory

If for no other reason, Days of Glory (1944) is significant as the motion picture debut of Gregory Peck. The young actor had caught the attention of screenwriter Casey Robinson (and more than a few theatergoers) while performing in an Emlyn Williams play on Broadway. When Robinson decided to cast all unknown newcomers in this RKO production about brave Russian guerilla fighters defending their homeland from the Nazis, he thought of Peck. Although the subsequent film failed to register very strongly with either critics or audiences, Peck did. He and his agent knew Hollywood needed strong, bankable leading men with so many of its male stars off to war (Peck was designated 4F due to a spine injury) and held out for the most advantageous deals. Peck had turned down a few lucrative long-term contracts from the major studios in favor of a four-picture/four-year agreement with Robinson, which he figured would allow him to return to the theater. But quickly finding himself hailed as everything from a new Gable to a new Gary Cooper, Peck was given the full star treatment and a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his second screen appearance in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944). Gregory Peck was truly an instant star and stayed one until his death in 2003. The transition to the screen from the stage wasn't without its challenges, however. Peck considered his own performance amateurish and never wanted to see Days of Glory again after its release. Furthermore, because he was trained for the theatre, he had to be coached by director Jacques Tourneur to "common up" his precise diction and stop projecting. Tourneur had the opposite problem with Peck's leading lady, Tamara Toumanova, a star of George Ballanchine's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. This was the dancer's first screen appearance in a speaking park, and she spoke so softly she could barely be picked up by the microphones. Playing a ballet dancer who at first reluctantly joins the Russian partisans, Toumanova's gifts as an actress were limited at best. Wisely, she limited herself to only a handful of motion pictures over the next two dozen years, even then appearing mostly in dancing parts. She married Robinson shortly after the release of Days of Glory. The picture was also Robinson's debut as a producer. A noted screenwriter for years at Warner Brothers, he wrote the screenplays for six Bette Davis hits, contributed (uncredited) to Casablanca (1942), and was Oscar-nominated® for the swashbuckler that made Errol Flynn a star, Captain Blood (1935). Robinson continued to write for many important films (Saratoga Trunk (1945), The Snows of Kilimanjaro, 1952) while continuing in a less successful capacity as producer. Days of Glory also introduced a portly little Czech character actor, Hugo Haas, to American audiences. When the Nazis invaded his country, Haas fled to America, taking jobs as announcer of U.S. radio broadcasts to the Eastern European underground and narrator of propaganda films. Although he continued to appear in front of the camera for the remainder of his career, Haas began writing, producing and directing his own productions, independent films he tried to model on European styles and which stand today as some of the most curious and idiosyncratic films of the 1950s. Days of Glory was based on a story by Melchior Lengyel, whose other stories formed the basis for the films Ninotchka (1939) and To Be or Not to Be (1942). The film also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Special Effects. Director: Jacques Tourneur Producer: Casey Robinson Screenplay: Casey Robinson, based on a story by Melchior Lengyel Cinematography: Tony Gaudio Editing: Joseph Noriega Art Direction: Carroll Clark, Albert S. D'Agostino Original Music: Daniele Amfitheatrof Cast: Gregory Peck (Vladimir), Tamara Toumanova (Nina), Lowell Gilmore (Semyon), Maria Palmer (Yelena), Hugo Haas (Fedor). BW-86m. Closed captioning. by Rob Nixon

Quotes

Trivia

This movie was the screen debut for all 19 actors involved.

Notes

The working title of this picture was Revenge. According to a news item in Hollywood Reporter, Days of Glory was selected as the final title through a national poll of screen fans. The film opens with the following spoken prologue: "Here is the true story, which could have happened in any land, of a little group of free people who lived and loved and fought to drive the invaders from their native soil." The title of the film is then followed by pictures of the cast members with their names and roles. The narration continues over these pictures, providing a brief sketch of each character. The complete production credits do not appear until the end of the film.
This picture marked the screen debut of Gregory Peck (1916-2003), who did not make a favorable impression on the audience, according to an item in New York Times. Although the onscreen credits state that film marked the debut for several actors in addition to Peck, Days of Glory was the first feature length film production for actors Alan Reed, Lowell Gilmore, Hugo Haas, Glenn Vernon, Edward Durst, Lou Crosby and Russian ballerina Tamara Toumanova. Maria Palmer, Dena Penn and Igor Dolgoruki had previous feature film credits; however, Days of Glory marked their first major film roles. It was also the first producing credit for screenwriter Casey Robinson, who was married to Toumanova, and the first "A" level production for director Jacques Tourneur. According to news item in Hollywood Reporter, the film was shot on location in Cedar City, UT. Production was suspended on August 18, 1943 so that Robinson could revise the script. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Special Effects.

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