The Seventh Cross (1944 film)

Infobox_Film
name = The Seventh Cross


imdb_id = 0037263
producer = Pandro S. Berman
director = Fred Zinnemann
writer = Helen Deutsch
Anna Seghers (novel)
starring = Spencer Tracy
Signe Hasso
Hume Cronyn
Jessica Tandy
Agnes Moorehead
Herbert Rudley
Felix Bressart
music = Roy Webb
cinematography = Karl Freund
editing = Thomas Richards
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = flagicon|United States July 24, 1944
runtime = 110 min.
language = English
budget =

The Seventh Cross is a 1944 film starring Spencer Tracy, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. Cronyn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. It was the first film in which Cronyn and Tandy, who were married, appeared together.

This was the first feature film directed by Fred Zinnemann, later noted for films such as "High Noon".

The movie was adapted from the novel of the same name by the German refugee writer Anna Seghers. Produced in the midst of the Second World War, it was one of the few films of the era to depict a Nazi concentration camp or mention the persecution of Jews.

Plot

The year is 1936. Seven prisoners escape from the Westhofen Concentration Camp near Worms, Germany near the Rhine. They represent a cross-section of German society: a writer, a circus performer, a schoolmaster, a farmer, a Jewish grocery clerk, and two prisoners who are apparently political activists. One is George Heisler (Tracy) and the other his mentor Wallau (Ray Collins), the leader of the group.

The camp commandant erects seven crosses and vows to "put a man on each." The first to be apprehended is Wallau, who dies without giving up any information and narrates the remainder of the film. The film follows Heisler as he makes his way across the German countryside (Rhenish Hesse), stealing clothing and watching as the Nazis round up every other escaped prisoner, to the indifference of the local population.

Despite the overwhelming brutality of his countrymen, Heisler does receive help. Still, he is soured to the German people and humanity in general. He makes his way to his home city of Mainz, only to find his contact there has been arrested. He cannot visit his family, because they are being watched, so he goes to his old friend, Paul Roeder (Hume Cronyn). Though Paul is an apolitical worker with a wife, Liesl (Jessica Tandy), and young children, he still risks all to help Heisler.

Roeder gets in touch with the German underground, whose members risk their lives to get Heisler out of the country. Through his exposure to this courage and kindness, and with the help toward the end of a sympathetic waitress (Hasso), Heisler regains his faith in humanity. Thanks to their help, he escapes to Holland on a cargo ship.

Cast

*Spencer Tracy as George Heisler
*Signe Hasso as Toni. Despite her second billing, the Swedish actress actually has only a small role toward the conclusion of the film. MGM publicity played up the minor and fleeting romantic element with the tag line "The revealing novel of a hunted man's search for love!" In fact, in both the novel and film, the protagonist is seeking escape, not a relationship.
*Hume Cronyn as Paul Roeder
*Jessica Tandy as Liesel Roeder
*Agnes Moorehead as Madame Marelli
*Herbert Rudley as Franz Marnet
*Felix Bressart as Poldi Schlamm
*Ray Collins as Ernst Wallau
*Alexander Granach as Zillich
*Katherine Locke as Frau Hedy Sauer
*George Macready as Bruno Sauer
*Paul Guilfoyle as Fiedler

Refugees from Nazi Germany played many small roles, with a small bit part played by Helene Weigel, the prominent German actress and wife of Bertolt Brecht.

The novel vs. the film

Anna Seghers, the author of the novel from which this movie was adapted, was a Communist, and Wallau and Heisler were Communists in the book. In the film, their political affiliation is not given.

The film also conformed to Hollywood norms by showing Heisler, who seeks aid from a girlfriend at one point, as unmarried. In the novel, he is married and had been cheating on his wife.

External links

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