Watch on the Rhine

Watch on the Rhine is a distinguished picture. It is even better than its powerful original stage version. It expresses the same urgent theme, but with broader sweep and in more affecting terms of personal emotion.

Its sense resides firmly in its facing one of civilization's most tragic ironies, its power derives from the sureness with which it tells a mordant tale and its beauty lies in its disclosures of human courage and dignity.

Watch on the Rhine, Lillian Hellman's stark and gripping play about Nazi indoctrination, was translated to film in 1943 with accuracy and depth. [26 Sep 1993, p.71]

This film does have its layers of propaganda, but it also (quite remarkably for its time) shows that people with thick German accents are not necessarily Nazis. They, too, have families and loves -- and some a hatred for fascism. [21 Mar 1991, p.12]

Lillian Hellman’s WWII potboiler Watch on the Rhine feels dated.

Housebound and fearfully lofty.

One of the first American films to present the philosophy--rather than just the warmongering--of fascism as a danger, WATCH ON THE RHINE is rather dully helmed by stage director Shumlin, who too often fails to avoid the static pitfalls of so many play adaptations.