Starts Well But Fizzles Out

Rating: 4/10 (11 August 2013)

The movie begins in Warsaw, Poland in 1939, in the days just before the invasion by Germany and the USSR (though the movie disregards the latter). Though the threat of war is in the air, a theater company's actors and staff spend their time worrying and arguing over theatrical roles and their status in the company. Also, a young bomber pilot has his eye upon an actor's wife (who is an actress herself), and tries to enter an affair with her.
The invasion comes. Most of the company has fled Poland, including the pilot, who has joined the Polish exile forces in Britain. However, the actor and his actress wife remain. A professor is sent from Britain to Poland to help the resistance there...but he becomes suspected as a double agent, and the pilot is sent to Poland to stop the professor's intended treachery. He warns the actors who are still there, and they in turn impersonate various Gestapo members to try to foil the professor. Unfortunately for the pilot, the husband he tried to cuckold is upset with him, which complicates things.
And unfortunately, it makes everything too complicated and confusing, and ruins the rest of the movie. Also not helping was the joke about "Concentration Camp Gerhardt" which became irritating after being repeated a dozen times. Also, many scenes went on for far too long after they made their point. The movie is notable mainly for being a period piece; as a farce it dropped the ball.