Dawn (1933) Plot Summary Explained

Release, runtime and language

1933 · 85 mins · German

Directed by

Gustav Ucicky

Starring

Paul Henreid, Rudolf Platte, Elsa Wagner, Eduard von Winterstein, Gerhard Bienert, Ludwig Stössel

Premiered three days after Hitler became Reichskanzler, it was the first film shown in Nazi Germany and a propaganda symbol of the new regime. The title “Dawn” (German “Morgenrot”) means the reddish glow before sunrise. Captain Liers’s submarine sinks a British ship, then falls into a trap by a British vessel disguised as Danish. After destroying the ambusher, a destroyer sinks their sub, leaving ten men 60 feet down with only eight rescue devices, forcing a desperate choice between shared sacrifice and survival.