AllMovie

Director Werner Hochbaum hated making films for the Nazi government to glorify the German military. Indeed, so much did he hate it that this 1939 film had quite the opposite effect, despite being made with story elements which were designed to satisfy his superiors, and as a consequence Hochbaum was banned from making theatrical films for the duration of the war. He managed to escape a worse punishment for his disrespect by enlisting in the army and making military newsreels. Before he died in 1946, he gave interviews in which he was unsparing in his criticism of the Nazi film industry. For this film, Hochbaum was given the use of actual military units. Despite appearances, therefore, the military units' struttings before the camera are not parodies of German military behavior at the time, but are simply an accurate record of it. The film's story concerns two junior officers who are friends. When one of them begins to shirk his military duties in order to pursue a love affair, the other one covers for him.