Oscar - winner Paul Muni (1936 Best Actor, The Story of Louis Pasteur) gives a dynamic performance in this dramatic World War II story that also stars Academy Award - winner Lillian Gish (1971 Honorary Award), Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Anna Lee. Muni plays Erik Toresen, a simple Norwegian fisherman who finds his quiet coastal village shattered by the Nazi invasion. Untrained in the ways of war, the villagers use only their cold, sullen hatred as defense. But when an elder member of the village community is maimed and tortured, Muni mobilizes the villagers and trains them to fight. Eventually discovered by the Germans, Muni and four others escape to England to lead British troops against the Germans, who intend to attack the Arctic supply lines.