Editing Lewis Milestone (section)

=== ''Edge of Darkness'' (1943) ===
Seventeen years after directing  ''[[The Caveman (1926 film)|The Caveman]]'' (1926) for [[Warner Bros.|Warner Brothers]], Milestone returned to Warner in a one-film contract.<ref>Millichap, 1981 pp. 30&ndash;31</ref>  ''[[Edge of Darkness (1943 film)|Edge of Darkness]]'' is the first of three successful films he made in collaboration with screenwriter [[Robert Rossen]]. The film stars [[Errol Flynn]] and [[Ann Sheridan]] as Norwegian freedom fighters, and [[Helmut Dantine]] as a sociopathic Nazi commandant;<ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 100: "[[New York accent|Bronx]] accented [European] patriots" and p. 104: "the too frequent casting of Americans as Europeans"<br />Millichap, 1981 p. 109: Milestone described the cast as "extremely mixed" and p. 110: Millichap reports "difficulties of characterization and casting" and other than [[Walter Huston]] "the rest of the cast is eminently forgettable" and "severe personal problems" that plagued cast members. And "New York accents"<br />Erickson, 2010 TCM: "The movie would probably have been better without any recognizable stars.<br />Millichap, 1981 p. 115: "weighed down by its single-minded theme"</ref> it signals a change in Milestone's professional and personal attitude toward his war films.<ref>Erickson, 2010. TCM: "Edge of Darkness adopts an entirely different approach to laud the fierce resistance of proud Norwegian patriots. Robert Rossen's unsubtle, humorless screenplay takes every Nazi-imposed hardship in deadly earnest"</ref> Milestone said:

{{blockquote |''Edge of Darkness'' has done away with disillusionment. We know the enemy we are fighting and we are facing the stern realities of the present war. The moral of ''Edge of Darkness'' is "United we stand, divided we fall." That is the great lesson of our time and the keystone for victory for the democratic cause.<ref>Millichap, 1981 p. 109: See footnote, quoted from an interview with Ezra Goodman in ''[[Theatre Arts Magazine]]'', February, 1943.</ref>}}

''Edge of Darkness'', a melodramatic film fantasy, is set in a remote Norwegian village whose inhabitants are brutalized by Nazi occupiers, inspiring resistance among the townspeople, who rebel and eliminate the Nazi occupiers. Milestone employs an "anti-suspense" device that shows the carnage suffered by the inhabitants then reveals the story in flashback. Milestone's "thematic oversimplification" reflected Hollywood's penchant for melodramatic propaganda.<ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 104<br />Erickson, 2010. TCM: "The intent of ''Edge of Darkness'' is to shock the audience with oppressive Nazi measures{{nbsp}}.... Stoic solidarity is the only response; as the screenplay emphasizes the need for a communal vengeance" and '"The revolt of the townspeople is very much a fantasy."<br />Millichap, 1981 p. 109<br />Canham, 1974 p. 91: The film uses "a formula of the Hollywood propaganda movie"</ref>