The Seventh Cross is based on a novel of the same name by a German refugee, Anna Seghers. She wrote it around 1940 but the story is set four years earlier. The narrative concerns the fate of seven escapees from a German concentration camp. This is before the Nazi "final solution" was put into place with the escapees being mainly political prisoners. Segher's sympathies were with the Communists but none of the characters' political affiliations are stated explicitly during the film.
The seven crosses refer to the seven patchwork crosses ordered constructed by the camp commandant in the main yard of the camp. Each time a prisoner is caught-dead or alive-he is raised up and crucified as a warning to the camp inmates. Early on, one of the escapees is captured and serves as a narrator (despite the fact that this character has been killed).
The protagonist is the disillusioned political prisoner, George Heisler, played by Spencer Tracy, who has no dialogue during the first 20 minutes or so. The plot is weak with Heisler making his way to his home town of Mainz, attempting to make contact with members of the German underground so they can aid him in obtaining his freedom. As we pretty much can guess Heisler will be successful in escaping his pursuers; so there's little suspense here. The most interesting aspect of the film is the way it chronicles how the average German copes with living in a totalitarian state.
The sinister nature of the Nazis is ably captured here. Notably these characters (such as a Gestapo chief), all have German accents. Other characters in the film, however, have no accents and speak perfect English. This includes Tracy as Heisler-in an early scene, he steals a coat from a shed, while teenagers are playing soccer out in a field. Later one of the teens bemoans the theft of the coat and again no one speaks in an accent. Hence, the verisimilitude of many of these scenes feels compromised.
This is particularly true of the character Paul Roeder (played by Broadway veteran, Hume Cronyn). While Cronyn's earnest portrayal proves well-acted, he just feels too American to be believable. Again, consistent use of German or some kind of European accents would have improved the film considerably. Roeder ends up as the only guy Heisler can turn to as he attempts to evade a multitude of Nazis and local police, who are closing in on capturing him.
There's a good scene in which Heisler and Roeder have dinner with his wife Liesel (played by Cronyn's real-life wife and Broadway star, Jessica Tandy), along with their children. In it, Roeder expresses non-political views but support for Hitler due to the successful economic policies at the time. Not everyone is so supportive-when Heisler first looks up his old girlfriend, she threatens to turn him in. One of Roeder's busybody neighbors calls the Gestapo on him after she spies a strange man (who just happens to be Heisler), and Roeder ends up being interrogated by the Gestapo (when Roeder is finally released and returns home, Tandy brilliantly expresses her grief and relief after her husband reveals he is safe).
Director Fred Zinnemann intentionally paints a more optimistic view of the average German, suggesting not all of them were bad during the war. Characters like Roeper, the men in the Resistance as well as a maid, Toni (Signe Hasso), at an inn where Heisler is hiding, prove to be overly sympathetic and probably not representative of the overall population, who probably were much more willing to cooperate with the Nazi regime out of fear or willing compliance. Of course the full import of the Nazi extermination program was unknown at the time the film was made, and only once the extermination camps were revealed, right after the War, did public opinion in the US turn against the German people as a whole.
Anti-Semitism is hardly brought up in the film. There is a rather unsympathetic Jewish doctor who helps Heisler at one point-you would think Heisler would confide in him since he's Jewish-but he fails to do so. Despite the war having gone on for three years, Zinnemann (who was Jewish himself), perhaps feared the backlash from isolationists, who still harbored resentment against liberals and Jewish refugees, who urged America's entry into the war, a few years earlier.
Zinnemann's conscription of German refugees to play many of the bit roles in the film, adds to the film's verisimilitude. But Heisler remains a dull character, whose backstory is quite deficient. The unnecessary love scene with Heisler and the maid at the inn detracts from the overall narrative coupled with the anti-climactic climax, a real letdown, wherein Heisler simply obtains a passport from the resistance, and easily sails into the sunset on an unspotted ship leaving the harbor.
The Seventh Cross is a mixed bag featuring a plot that lacks suspense. The sense of dread among the populace under totalitarian rule is convincing enough, featuring some handy performances by real-life refugees from Nazi Germany.
The seven crosses refer to the seven patchwork crosses ordered constructed by the camp commandant in the main yard of the camp. Each time a prisoner is caught-dead or alive-he is raised up and crucified as a warning to the camp inmates. Early on, one of the escapees is captured and serves as a narrator (despite the fact that this character has been killed).
The protagonist is the disillusioned political prisoner, George Heisler, played by Spencer Tracy, who has no dialogue during the first 20 minutes or so. The plot is weak with Heisler making his way to his home town of Mainz, attempting to make contact with members of the German underground so they can aid him in obtaining his freedom. As we pretty much can guess Heisler will be successful in escaping his pursuers; so there's little suspense here. The most interesting aspect of the film is the way it chronicles how the average German copes with living in a totalitarian state.
The sinister nature of the Nazis is ably captured here. Notably these characters (such as a Gestapo chief), all have German accents. Other characters in the film, however, have no accents and speak perfect English. This includes Tracy as Heisler-in an early scene, he steals a coat from a shed, while teenagers are playing soccer out in a field. Later one of the teens bemoans the theft of the coat and again no one speaks in an accent. Hence, the verisimilitude of many of these scenes feels compromised.
This is particularly true of the character Paul Roeder (played by Broadway veteran, Hume Cronyn). While Cronyn's earnest portrayal proves well-acted, he just feels too American to be believable. Again, consistent use of German or some kind of European accents would have improved the film considerably. Roeder ends up as the only guy Heisler can turn to as he attempts to evade a multitude of Nazis and local police, who are closing in on capturing him.
There's a good scene in which Heisler and Roeder have dinner with his wife Liesel (played by Cronyn's real-life wife and Broadway star, Jessica Tandy), along with their children. In it, Roeder expresses non-political views but support for Hitler due to the successful economic policies at the time. Not everyone is so supportive-when Heisler first looks up his old girlfriend, she threatens to turn him in. One of Roeder's busybody neighbors calls the Gestapo on him after she spies a strange man (who just happens to be Heisler), and Roeder ends up being interrogated by the Gestapo (when Roeder is finally released and returns home, Tandy brilliantly expresses her grief and relief after her husband reveals he is safe).
Director Fred Zinnemann intentionally paints a more optimistic view of the average German, suggesting not all of them were bad during the war. Characters like Roeper, the men in the Resistance as well as a maid, Toni (Signe Hasso), at an inn where Heisler is hiding, prove to be overly sympathetic and probably not representative of the overall population, who probably were much more willing to cooperate with the Nazi regime out of fear or willing compliance. Of course the full import of the Nazi extermination program was unknown at the time the film was made, and only once the extermination camps were revealed, right after the War, did public opinion in the US turn against the German people as a whole.
Anti-Semitism is hardly brought up in the film. There is a rather unsympathetic Jewish doctor who helps Heisler at one point-you would think Heisler would confide in him since he's Jewish-but he fails to do so. Despite the war having gone on for three years, Zinnemann (who was Jewish himself), perhaps feared the backlash from isolationists, who still harbored resentment against liberals and Jewish refugees, who urged America's entry into the war, a few years earlier.
Zinnemann's conscription of German refugees to play many of the bit roles in the film, adds to the film's verisimilitude. But Heisler remains a dull character, whose backstory is quite deficient. The unnecessary love scene with Heisler and the maid at the inn detracts from the overall narrative coupled with the anti-climactic climax, a real letdown, wherein Heisler simply obtains a passport from the resistance, and easily sails into the sunset on an unspotted ship leaving the harbor.
The Seventh Cross is a mixed bag featuring a plot that lacks suspense. The sense of dread among the populace under totalitarian rule is convincing enough, featuring some handy performances by real-life refugees from Nazi Germany.