None Shall Escape (1944)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

André De Toth

Writers:

Lester Cole (writer)
Alfred Neumann (story)

Release Date:

3 February 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The most prophetic picture of our time!

Plot:

The career of a Nazi officer shown as flashbacks from his trial as a war criminal. |

Plot Keywords:

Nazi

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Marsha Hunt	...	Marja Pacierkowski
Alexander Knox	...	Wilhelm Grimm
Henry Travers	...	Father Warecki
Erik Rolf	...	Karl Grimm
Richard Crane	...	Willie Grimm as a man
Dorothy Morris	...	Janina Paeierkowski
Richard Hale	...	Rabbi David Levin
Ruth Nelson	...	Alice Grimm
Kurt Kreuger	...	Lt. Gersdorf
Shirley Mills	...	Anna Oremska
Elvin Field	...	Jan Stys as a boy
Trevor Bardette	...	Jan Stys as a man
Frank Jaquet	...	Dr. Matek
Ray Teal	...	Oremski
Art Smith	...	Stys

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Goofs:

Factual errors: Wilhelm Grim initially appears in the uniform of the SS and then later appears in a Wehrmacht uniform. This is unlikely. It was more likely to be the other way around towards the end of the war when SS soldiers tried to hide their SS involvement by disguising themselves as ordinary solders.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust (2004)

Grim but Good

This one is tough to watch -- as an earlier reviewer says. That is amazing considering the terrible films that came out right after WWII -- particularly the "liberation" of Dachau. It is clear that, as of the middle of the war, we knew exactly what was happening to the Jews. The sequence that shows a "transport" is vivid, almost as if based upon an actual newsreel (the Nazis liked to record their atrocities). Knox as the Nazi is brilliant. He charts the course of a Nazi career. That charting is particularly telling when contrasted with the reactions of other Germans, at first laughing at Hitler, then incredulous, and finally helpless. That contrast, however, permits us to believe in the "conversion" of one young Nazi officer to an anti-Nazi stance. That did happen, as witness the several attempts against Hitler, most notably the Staffenberg plot which occurred as this film was coming out. A strong film, effectively using flashbacks, accurately predicting the Nuremburg trails and others that would occur once the war ended.