Morgenrot (1933)

Morgenrot: Directed by Vernon Sewell, Gustav Ucicky. With Rudolf Forster, Fritz Genschow, Adele Sandrock, Camilla Spira. In 1915, Captain Liers, commander of a submarine is leaving his hometown, where he, his 2nd officer and the radio-operator, who is married there, spend their shore leave. Liers two brothers were already killed in action, so his mother doesn’t like the idea of him going back to his sub. Liers thinks his 2nd officer is in love with a local girl, who is really pining for him. On patrol they sink a British armoured cruiser, but while returning to their harbor, they’re attacked by a sub trap. They’re able to sink it, but the trap has alarmed a destroyer, that sinks their sub. The sub lays on the sea bed at 200 feet, and except for the bridge, it is full of water. 10 members of the crew survived, but there are only 8 rescue devices. Liers gives the order, that the crew shall use them, but they disobey, either all get out or nobody…

“Outdoor U-Boat scenes in Morgenrot were filmed in Helsinki, Finland in co-operation with Finnish Army. Finland was the only country in Europe to allow Ufa to use her U-Boats for filming.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLiason officer was Heikki Parkkonen, head of filming in Finnish Army and also another member of his staff, photographer Vilho Armas Pentikäinen took part of filming. Parkkonen did actually part of shooting for the film. Later was found that Pentikäinen was spying for Russia. He defected in 1933 to Russia.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eParkkonen and navy commanders Eero Rahola and Akseli Raninen took part of Berlin festivities of film premiere in January 1933.”