November 4, 1943: “The North Star” Premieres

November 4, 1943: The North Star premieres, directed by Lewis Milestone, with a screenplay by Lillian Hellman.

It's set in the early days of the Nazis' invasion of the Soviet Union, the Summer of 1941. Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, Walter Brennan, Robert Lowery (who would play Batman in a 1949 film serial), Ann Harding (no relation to Warren), Farley Granger (no relation to Stewart) and Dean Jagger (no relation to Mick) are among the Ukrainian villagers who resist.

Erich von Stroheim, the German actor and director billed in the silent film era as "The Man You Love to Hate," plays a Nazi doctor who takes blood from village children, in some cases killing them, to save Nazi soldiers wotj transfusions.

Brennan turned out to be one of the wackier anti-Communists in Hollywood, and probably repudiated this film at some point due to its pro-Soviet propaganda. Hellman would later be blacklisted for her pro-Soviet views. Later rehabilitated, her reputation was ruined again by charges that her memoirs were full of lies. She died in 1984.

The North Star hit differently starting in 2022, with Ukraine being a separate nation, invaded by the one from which it separated, Russia.

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November 4, 1943 was a Thursday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet.

There were 2 games in the NHL. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 5-5 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium. The New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins were not scheduled.