Counter-Attack

Dir. Zoltan Korda. 1945, 90 mins. 35mm. With Paul Muni, Marguerite Chapman. Praising this WWII drama about a Russian paratrooper, a woman, and seven German soldiers trapped in a bombed-out building, Manny Farber wrote: “Due in about equal parts to John Howard Lawson’s script, James Wong Howe’s photography of the Nazis—which is for once dry rather than silvery—Zoltan Korda’s directing—and one of these persons’ liking for shots in which subjects are arranged in balanced, stark formation, the Nazis are employed with unusual effect, and the film has a good deal of unconventional movie vitality.”