None Shall Escape **** (1944, Marsha Hunt, Alexander Knox, Henry Travers) – Classic Movie Review 7539

‘I would rather die than be forced into a Nazi Officer’s Club!’ Director André De Toth’s 1944 wartime film None Shall Escape was the first to depict the horrors of the Holocaust and harsh realities of World War Two. It is ‘The first shockingly dramatic story of the trial of the war criminals’.

However, it is advertised as ‘The most prophetic picture of our time’, for, as the opening credits prologue, explains: ‘The time of this story is the future. The war is over. As we promised, the criminals of this war have been taken back to the scenes of their crimes for trial. In fact, as our leaders promised – None Shall Escape.’

The film examines the ideology of Nazism through flashbacks into the life of a monstrous Nazi officer, Wilhelm Grimm (Alexander Knox), who returns to the village he grew up in to punish the people who had rejected him for his beliefs. His evil career is shown as the flashbacks from his trial as a war criminal.

None Shall Escape was an important and brave film for Hollywood to attempt in 1944, not as brilliant or devastating as Roberto Rossellini’s later Germany Year Zero (1948), but filled with honest disgust and despair at the evil which man is capable of venting upon his fellow human beings.

The original story that the screenplay was based on deservedly received an Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Original Story (Alfred Neumann, Joseph Than), and screenwriter Lester Cole might have deserved a nomination too.

The acting is excellent all round, especially from Knox, and Lee Garmes’s black and white cinematography is outstanding, too.

Also in the cast are Marsha Hunt, Henry Travers, Dorothy Morris, Richard Crane, Erik Rolfe, Richard Hale, Ruth Nelson, Kurt Kreuger, Shirley Mills, Elvin Field, Trevor Bardette, Frank Jaquet, Ray Teal, Art Smith, George Lessey, Arno Frey, Hank Worden and Felix Basch.

Park Circus is to present a brand new 4K restoration from Sony Pictures at the 2018 BFI London Film Festival. It is the UK premiere of the restoration.

Wilhelm Grimm was also the name of one of the children’s fairy tale writing brothers.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7539

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