This is, allegedly, one of the most important war films ever, because a) it is based on a true story and b) it is set in the then still existing ruins of the actual German cities it is set in. The film was nominated for Best Screen Play Oscar.
Richard Basehart plays a communications officer on his way to an intelligence unit based in a French orphanage run by nuns close to the German border in the last few months of the Second World War. On the way, he and his driver are subject to an unsuccessful ambush by two German soldiers who are taken prisoner and escorted to the unit where German prisoners are trained to become double agents. One of the soldiers is Oskar Werner in his first English-language film.
Soon Basehart is assigned a mission as radio operator alongside a cynical German soldier and ex-thief played by Hans Christian... no, Blech, codenamed Tiger, who knows Mannheim where they are to be based. At the same, Werner, codenamed Happy, is assigned to make his way from Munich to Mannheim to find the whereabouts of a platoon. In the course of his travels (which he must complete in 5 days) in military convoys, braving Allied air raids, Happy encounters Germans with differing attitudes towards the war. He is betrayed to an undercover Gestapo office whom Happy kills during a strike and avoids the advances of Hildegard Neff. As he is posing as a medic, he is chosen to look after a Nazi officer who is either ill or a drug addict and who, by coincidence, has the information Happy needs. In the middle of the night, he resists giving the officer an overdose and leaves him in good health. He narrowly avoids being identified by an old family friend he happens to bump into on a tram as he is travelling under an assumed name and forged papers. When he discovers that he is on a blacklist of spies under that assumed name he quickly gets rid of his papers and goes on the run.
Finally reaching Mannheim, he finds the bombed-out safe house where Basehart and Tiger are hauled up. The radio has been damaged and does not work. Tiger suddenly remembers that his siter-in-law lives nearby but his nephew narrowly fails to shop the three. Their only option is to swim across the Rhine. Tiger gives himself up at the first opportunity and Happy is captured. This leaves Basehart to return to the unit, convey the whereabouts of the platoon and let the Americans win the war.
My trouble with the film is not just the rambling nature of the storyline, confusingly giving equal emphasis to each episode (and thereby downplaying the most significant scene both for the story and for another reason), it is the fact that not only is Basehart given top billing when he isn't present in the film for over half the time, but Gary Merrill (Bette Davis's real life husband) gets second billing as the intelligence unit's chief. The real star of the film is undoubtedly Oskar Werner, but presumably as he isn't allowed to convey the information he has gained because he is the wrong nationality and it has to be an American who wins the War, neither is he allowed top billing as a relatively unknown actor, irrespective of the fact that the camera loves his doleful eyes and thoughtful expressions. His voice is quiet and precise all the way through.
Richard Basehart plays a communications officer on his way to an intelligence unit based in a French orphanage run by nuns close to the German border in the last few months of the Second World War. On the way, he and his driver are subject to an unsuccessful ambush by two German soldiers who are taken prisoner and escorted to the unit where German prisoners are trained to become double agents. One of the soldiers is Oskar Werner in his first English-language film.
Soon Basehart is assigned a mission as radio operator alongside a cynical German soldier and ex-thief played by Hans Christian... no, Blech, codenamed Tiger, who knows Mannheim where they are to be based. At the same, Werner, codenamed Happy, is assigned to make his way from Munich to Mannheim to find the whereabouts of a platoon. In the course of his travels (which he must complete in 5 days) in military convoys, braving Allied air raids, Happy encounters Germans with differing attitudes towards the war. He is betrayed to an undercover Gestapo office whom Happy kills during a strike and avoids the advances of Hildegard Neff. As he is posing as a medic, he is chosen to look after a Nazi officer who is either ill or a drug addict and who, by coincidence, has the information Happy needs. In the middle of the night, he resists giving the officer an overdose and leaves him in good health. He narrowly avoids being identified by an old family friend he happens to bump into on a tram as he is travelling under an assumed name and forged papers. When he discovers that he is on a blacklist of spies under that assumed name he quickly gets rid of his papers and goes on the run.
Finally reaching Mannheim, he finds the bombed-out safe house where Basehart and Tiger are hauled up. The radio has been damaged and does not work. Tiger suddenly remembers that his siter-in-law lives nearby but his nephew narrowly fails to shop the three. Their only option is to swim across the Rhine. Tiger gives himself up at the first opportunity and Happy is captured. This leaves Basehart to return to the unit, convey the whereabouts of the platoon and let the Americans win the war.
My trouble with the film is not just the rambling nature of the storyline, confusingly giving equal emphasis to each episode (and thereby downplaying the most significant scene both for the story and for another reason), it is the fact that not only is Basehart given top billing when he isn't present in the film for over half the time, but Gary Merrill (Bette Davis's real life husband) gets second billing as the intelligence unit's chief. The real star of the film is undoubtedly Oskar Werner, but presumably as he isn't allowed to convey the information he has gained because he is the wrong nationality and it has to be an American who wins the War, neither is he allowed top billing as a relatively unknown actor, irrespective of the fact that the camera loves his doleful eyes and thoughtful expressions. His voice is quiet and precise all the way through.