Situation Hopeless — But Not Serious ** (1965, Alec Guinness, Mike Connors, Robert Redford) – Classic Movie Review 9945

The 1965 US-German co-production black and white comedy Situation Hopeless — But Not Serious is based on actor Robert Shaw’s novel The Hiding and is produced and directed by Gottfried Reinhardt, the son of the innovative Austrian-born theatre and film director Max Reinhardt.

Alec Guinness stars as meek, lonely World War Two German jail warden Wilhelm Frick, who captures US airmen Captain Hank Wilson (Robert Redford) and Sergeant Lucky Finder (Mike Connors) after their bomber has crashed down and they have parachuted into his small German town. He keeps them as prisoners of war in his cellar but after V.E. Day he doesn’t tell them that the war is over because he has no friends and likes their company.

There is just the odd flicker of a good comedy idea in this reworking of a famous recurring shaggy-dog story, as well as some amusing lines and very decent acting from Guinness.

Situation Hopeless — But Not Serious was premiered on 13 October 1965 in New York City, and had its London premiere in January 1966, but then shelved and eventually released to general apathy in 1969 after Redford had become a popular star with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

It was shot in Germany at the Bavaria Studios, Munich, Bavaria.

The screenplay is by Gottfried Reinhardt’s wife Silvia Reinhardt, based on Robert Shaw’s novel The Hiding, with Jan Lustig credited for adaptation.

Also in the cast are Anita Hoefer, Paul Dahlke, Frank Wolff, Mady Rahl, Elisabeth von Molo, John Briley and Carola Regnier.