None Shall Escape

Plot synopsis:
The film centres on the trial of Wilhelm Grimm as a war criminal. Each character witness provides a flashback scene to a previous part of Grimm's life. In the trial, it is revealed that Grimm (Alexander Knox), who fought for Germany in the First World War and lost a leg in battle, returns after the war to the small German village of Litzbark (now in newly independent Poland) where he had been a teacher. Despite the recent hostilities, he is welcomed back into the community and resumes his teaching. He also resumes his relationship with Marja Pacierkowski, a local Polish girl to whom he had become engaged before the war.
He is bitter about Germany losing the war and it is obvious he has been changed by the experience. He treats the villagers with disdain, and his upcoming marriage is cancelled. He calls his fiancée a "peasant" only interested in her wedding dowry.
Taunted by the school's pupils, who say he is not fit to marry any Polish woman, he molests one of them, Anna, a young girl. The rape is blamed on her young male friend, Jan Stys, but Wilhelm's fiancée accidentally stumbles on the truth from Anna. The girl subsequently drowns herself in the lake. A mob gathers seeking vengeance, but a trial is required. Nevertheless, Jan throws a stone, putting out Wilhelm's left eye. After the trial fails to convict him, he returns to Germany, after borrowing money from the priest and the rabbi.
In Germany he goes to Munich to the house of his brother Karl, who is married with a young family. Karl clearly despises the Nazis, referring scornfully to "that Hitler creature". Karl cannot dissuade Wilhelm, though, and Wilhelm joins the Nazi Party and rises through its ranks. In 1929 he is sought by the police after the Nazi Party is made illegal. His nephew keeps the police at bay and Wilhelm rewards him with a swastika badge. As the Nazis grow in strength Karl decides he has no option but to leave Germany and go to Vienna. He threatens to reveal Wilhelm's part in the Reichstag fire unless he joins them, but instead of doing so, Wilhelm turns them over to the authorities, sending his own brother to a concentration camp. He then arranges that Karl's son enters the Hitler Youth.
When the Second World War starts, Grimm becomes the commander of the occupying force of the same village where he had previously lived. He treats the villagers brutally. He forces Marja, now a schoolteacher, to burn the children's books, saying they will be replaced by German books. He cruelly says that time has not treated her well and taunts her for rejecting him due to his leg injury. His nephew Willi, whom Wilhelm asserts that he treats as his own son, is now serving under him and pursuing Marja's daughter, Janina.
Grimm, who is now a Reichs Commissioner, next becomes involved in the large-scale deportation of the Jews and other minority groups. He commands the rabbi to quell dissent among the crowd as they are placed on the trains. The rabbi, knowing that they are going to die, instructs the crowd to rebel instead, upon which the Nazis turn machine guns onto the crowd. Wilhelm kills the rabbi with his pistol. Father Warecki exchanges final words with him as he dies.
Willi finds Marja and Janina hiding Jan Stys, who is injured, but he leaves without Jan when Marja rebukes him, and seems to soften in his attitude. Wilhelm sends Janina to work at the "officers' club", the Nazi name for enforced prostitution. Willi begs that she be released, to no avail. When Janina also dies, Grimm's nephew renounces his Nazi allegiance, having realised what an evil path Wilhelm has led him on. While Willi is praying by the side of Janina's body in the church, Wilhelm shoots him in the back.
We return to the courtroom. Wilhelm refuses to accept the authority of the court and continues to spout Nazi propaganda. The judge leaves it to the people to decide Grimm's fate.

Tags: flashback

Review:
That is amazing considering the terrible films that came out right after WWII -- particularly the "liberation" of Dachau.
It is clear that, as of the middle of the war, we knew exactly what was happening to the Jews.
The sequence that shows a "transport" is vivid, almost as if based upon an actual newsreel (the Nazis liked to record their atrocities).
Knox as the Nazi is brilliant.
He charts the course of a Nazi career.
That charting is particularly telling when contrasted with the reactions of other Germans, at first laughing at Hitler, then incredulous, and finally helpless.
That did happen, as witness the several attempts against Hitler, most notably the Staffenberg plot which occurred as this film was coming out.
A strong film, effectively using flashbacks, accurately predicting the Nuremburg trails and others that would occur once the war ended..
Great Classic Film.
Never viewed this film until recently on TCM and found this story concerning Poland and a small town which had to suffer with the Nazi occupation of the local towns just like many other European Cities for example: Norway.
The First World War was over and people in this town were still suffering from their lost soldiers and the wounded which War always creates.
Alexander Knox, ( Wilhelm Gimm)"Gorky Park" returns from the war with a lost leg and was the former school teacher in town.
He was brought up a German and was not very happy with the Polish people and they in turn did not fully accept him either.
As the Hitler party grew to power Wilhelm Grimm desired to become a Nazi in order to return and punish this small Polish town for their treatment towards him which was really all in his mind.
Marsha Hunt,(Marja Pacierkowski),"Chloe's Prayer", played an outstanding role as a woman who lost her husband and was romantically involved with Whilhelm Gimm.
There are many flashbacks and some very real truths about how the Nazi destroyed people's families and their entire lives.
The cattle cars are shown in this picture with Jewish people heading to the Nazi gas chambers.
If you have not seen this film, and like this subject matter, give it some of your time; this film is very down to earth for a 1944 film and a story you will not forget too quickly..
A Good Little Unknown Movie.
The only reason I give this movie an 8 out of 10 is because there are few movies, in my opinion, that are perfect.
This little B picture is a taut story, well told.
I've always been intrigued by Alexander Knox, but have seen him very few movies.
Here he plays Wilhelm Grimm, a sad little man who turns into a monster.
Since World War 2, actors who played Nazis or other evil types in films have occasionally been nominated for Oscars.
I imagine that since this was made during the war, the Academy felt like honoring a performance like this would have been like honoring evil.
But Knox puts in that kind of performance--a man so bitter and consumed by guilt that he thinks nothing of making others suffer.
I still can't get over it.Marsha Hunt, who usually plays the filbert gibbet or social butterfly, is cast against type in probably the best performance I've ever seen her give, too.
Maybe not Oscar worthy, but the best of her career.
Nothing against her; I have enjoyed her in those "slight" roles she often played.
But here she proves she up to the task of heavier drama.If you like human drama stories, or stories about the fates of those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis, I highly recommend this fine little film..
An amazing film that was ahead of its time.
This was a wonderful little American propaganda film that is both highly creative AND openly discusses the Nazi atrocities before the entire extent of the death camps were revealed.
While late 1944 and into 1945 would reveal just how evil and horrific they were, this film, unlike other Hollywood films to date, is the most brutally honest film of the era I have seen regarding Nazi atrocities.The film begins in a courtroom in the future--after the war is over (the film was made in 1944--the war ended in May, 1945).
In this fictitious world court, a Nazi leader is being tried for war crimes.
Wilhelm Grimm is totally unrepentant and one by one witnesses are called who reveal Grimm's life since 1919 in a series of flashbacks.
At first, it appears that the film is going to be sympathetic or explain how Grimm was pushed to join the Nazis.
However, after a while, it becomes very apparent that Grimm is just a sadistic monster.
These episodes are amazingly well done and definitely hold your interest and also make the film seem less like a piece of propaganda but a legitimate drama.All in all, the film does a great job considering the film mostly stars second-tier actors.
There are many compelling scenes and performances--especially the very prescient Jewish extermination scene towards the end that can't help but bring you close to tears.
It was also interesting how around the same point in the film there were some super-creative scenes that use crosses in a way you might not notice at first.
Overall, it's a must-see for history lovers and anyone who wants to see a good film.FYI--This is not meant as a serious criticism of the film, but Hitler was referred to as "that paper hanger".
This is a reference to the myth that Hitler had once made money putting up wallpaper.
This is in fact NOT true--previously he'd been a "starving artist", homeless person and served well in the German army in WWI.
This is a neat little B picture where World War II has already been one and Nuremberg
like trials are taking place.
One such trial is that of SS officer Alexander Knox
and is told in flashback by several witnesses to his barbarism and cruelty.Knox was a soldier in World War I and was wounded in the trenches and lost a
Before the war he lived in German occupied Poland as a school teacher and
Now that Poland has been reconstituted a nation Knox is even
So he makes his way to the new Weimar Republic in Germany and lives in Munich where another WW1 veteran is organizing a new
Nazi party that excites Knox.Even in this country many things can push someone into those kind of extreme
Knox's individual story is never lost against the background of
Knox is fascinating portrait of studied and
As he rises in the party when war is declared and over in a manner of weeks in 1939 against Poland he makes sure he's assigned
The film notes the friendship of
Catholic priest Henry Travers and Rabbi Richard Hale.
The film deserves praise
But in pre WW2 Poland ain't no way Travers and Hale would be any kind of friends.
The film
was written by Lester Cole of the Hollywood 10 and it got an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
On that point Cole was truly fantasizing.Others to note in the cast are Marsha Hunt as the village schoolteacher who was a teen back when Knox was the teacher, Richard Crane as Knox's nephew
grown version of a kid who hated Knox when he was the schoolteacher.Maybe without big name stars this film has managed better than most wartime films to still be relevant today.
Very relevant when looking at today's
I love the way this movie covers a rage of characters..
Not many movies of Wold War 2 covers how a person comes to join a Nazi Patry.
What makes someone turn to such extremes.
I Think this movie doesn't get enough credit for that .
I'm not sympathizing with any type of Nazi but this movie gives a wide range of outlooks.
I think it's an excellent teaching tool of what can happen to all people when they become angry and frustrated.
I wish more movies would cover this topic.
I think it's import to understand the mind of people who are seemingly loving and normal to turn to a party with such hatred.
I think a lot of them were tricked and we need to know about this so it can never happen again !!
It does not happen overnight and this movie does a great job of building up to that !.
It may feel a bit dated (no pun intended) and the effects certainly are, but the story is what counts and that is pretty strong indeed.The acting is more than good, though you can see where it does lead to most of the time.
So while there won't be too many surprises, hopefully the drama itself and maybe a bit of the back-story of this movie will entice you.
Don't be appalled by the court aspect of the movie, because very little of it actually plays in it..
An astonishing film, not only for its time; as relevant today as ever..
Inevitably, when one sees this film a comparison with "Judgment at Nuremburg" made twenty years later comes to mind.
The second war crimes trial movie, of course, was a grand production peopled with star actors.
It makes a powerful impact.
It is a great film.
But I find the impact of this earlier gem even more profound, not just because it was made while the war was still ongoing and not just because it was the first Hollywood production to admit, and show on screen, the genocide of Jewish people.
That, of course, is a powerful reason to see the film.
It is extraordinary that Rabbi David in the film (Richard Hale) not only exhorts his people to resist - as in the Warsaw ghetto - but he recites, before dying, the words of the Kaddish, in Hebrew.
But the true genius of "None Shall Escape" and its difference from "Judgment at Nuremburg" lie in the motivations of the characters.
In "Judgment" the accused criminal (Burt Lancaster) is a decent man.
Certainly that was the case for masses of people.
That is an ancient dilemma; what is a good person to do when his society turns evil?
Socrates himself, the great philosopher, faced the dilemma when his own students overthrew Athenian democracy and turned it into a bloody dictatorship.
(Spoiler: he did a Burt Lancaster) It is a vital question even today.
"None Shall Escape" addresses a more fundamental question.
What makes a society, or an individual, turn evil?The movie, needless to say, has no answer.
We see the proto-Nazi in his larval stage.
We see his metamorphosis, then his emergence as a fully-formed monster.
He is, unlike Burt Lancaster's later version, entirely unrepentant - a far more plausible end.
Many currents feed it: a need to belong - the alienation he feels as an outsider in the Polish community; a feeling of inadequacy - he sees himself as half a man since his war wound, for which he compensates by rape and brutality; a fragile ego which requires to be fed - he incarcerates his brother and kills his own nephew when he fears their acts will reflect badly upon him.
His last two crimes, prostituting Marja's daughter and shooting down his nephew, are imposed upon him by the whispered words of his subordinate (Kurt Kreuger).
We come perilously close to sympathy for the monster.
But in the end he is irredeemable.All this Alexander Knox brilliantly but subtly allows to come through.
Note how, in the second half of his characterization he indulges more and more in alcohol, as if he needs to steady himself to keep his life going.
Marsha Hunt too gives us a luminous and subtle portrayal.
At first she presents us a strong, determined woman.
By the end she presents us a lost look.
I see an earlier comment expresses surprise that Marsha Hunt could play such a serious role.
See the depth of her performances in "Smash-Up" and "Raw Deal."Marsha Hunt and Lester Cole the screenwriter (and also Art Smith who has a small role) were destroyed a few years later by the blacklist.
Ayn Rand and her cohort, the Motion Picture Alliance for American Ideas made sure that groupthink prevailed in American ideas.
They condemned "The Best Years of Our Lives" for some mild criticism of businessmen (allusions which if you reach for a handful of popcorn you'll miss entirely).
They condemned "A Song to Remember" (biopic on he life of Frederic Chopin) because he sacrifices himself for his country - instead of, as Ayn insisted, putting individual interest ahead of "collectivist" ideology.
Lester Cole slipped one through.
Gauleiter Grimm's brother (Erik Rolf) says in so many words that he is a Socialist.
Lester could have written in any number of reasons to have the character persecuted (or blacklisted) without mentioning the s-word.
Yet another reason to applaud the courage of "None Shall Escape.".
This is not a great movie.
You have only to compare it with another, later movie about the trial of Nazi war criminals, Judgement at Nuremberg (1961), which is a great if flawed movie, to see how far this one falls short of greatness.That said, however, this movie is very workmanlike.
There are no real surprises, but it moves along effectively and makes all the expected points.
The war criminal here, Wilhelm Grimm, very well played by Alexander Knox, is an understated monster with no surprising complications.
I suppose in 1944 there would have been no other way to depict him, but it makes his character predictable and not very interesting.
Hannah Arendt's study of "the banality of evil" would later show that these monsters, though indeed true monsters, were often not monstrous in everything, which made their monstrosity harder to understand.The final, short scene, in which the judges address the world after the war, might have made sense in 1944 before Germany had been defeated, but it seems very hokey now.It's worth a watch, but it's not particularly memorable..
German accents?.
Never been a fan of German soilders speaking perfect English.
A title borrowed from Bible (book of Jeremy).This is an unique movie among the propaganda movies which were made in those dark years :history-fi best describes its screenplay ,for it depicts events that are still to come,predating Nürnberg (and the movie which dealt with the trials).The ending is astounding ,as the judge leaves the verdict to all of us.The screenplay is very intelligent since it follows a man's destiny since the end of WW1 and the doomed Traité De Versailles and explains WHY an embittered crippled man can turn into a Nazi.When the first world war is over ,Wilhem's (a sensational portrayal by Alexander Knox) fight has just begun:his fiancée Marja (a sensitive Marsha Hunt)feels it " so she walks out on me and makes me the town's laughingstock".Admirable sequences : -The two women in the tall grass:Marja trying to learn what really happened to Anna.-Karl at the ceremony :Wilhem,following Cain's and Joseph's brothers ' footsteps ,sends his own brother to a concentration camp,because he may endanger his career.-Some may regret the romantic affair between Marja's daughter and Wilhem's nephew ,call it corny :but it gives the movie its apex: Willie ,walking down the Church aisles while throwing his Nazis emblems on the ground ,a scene you will always remember..
Wilhelm Grimm (Alexander Knox) stands trial for Nazi crimes.
Three witnesses give evidence - Father Warecki (Henry Travers), Wilhelm's brother Karl (Erik Rolf) and Wilhelm's former lover Marja (Marsha Hunt) - before Wilhelm speaks in his own defense.
The film ends after the court sums up....The film is told in three flashback segments as each of the witnesses takes the stand.
The story is mostly set in a small Polish village and memorable scenes include the village reaction to the death of Anna (Shirley Mills), who Wilhelm is accused of raping; the treatment of the Jewish villagers as they prepare to be moved to concentration camps; and the church service where Willie Grimm (Richard Crane) denounces his Nazi upbringing whilst mourning for his girlfriend Janina (Dorothy Morris), Marja's daughter, after she has been shot at a brothel.Throughout the film, Knox is unrepentant and is very convincing as a bitter, resentful and evil man.
Martha Hunt has some powerful moments and matches him with her strength and Henry Travers is also very good in his role as a priest.
This film delivers an effective story that stays with you once it has finished..
A chilling portrait of evil.
None Shall Escape is directed by Andre De Toth, has a screenplay by Lester Cole, is based on a story by Alfred Neumann and Joseph Thann and stars Alexander Knox, Marsha Hunt, Henry Travers and Richard Hale.This film was released just a year before the end of the Second World War. It shows the war being won by the allies and the Nazis going on trial before the world for their horrific crimes.The film opens with several high ranking Nazi officers standing trial.
The first one to step before the judges is Wilhelm Grimm(Alexander Knox).
Grimm refuses to apologise for his crimes.
Through witnesses called to testify we are shown in flashback the terrible things he has done or ordered to be done by others.
We also quite interestingly see what led to him becoming such a monster in the first place, he certainly wasn't born evil but he became so over the years.One of those testifying against him include his own brother who Grimm betrayed to the Gestapo.
Other witnesses include Grimm's former fiancé Marja (Marsha Hunt)and Father Warecki(Henry Travers)the Priest of the town Grimm commanded during the war.Featuring strong performances and some quite graphic (for the time)and realistic scenes of violence this one stays with you long after it's finished.
The entire cast are superb and Knox is excellent in the lead role, I think he's quite an underrated actor who should be better known today.