Évasion

This is another underrated film, probably due to the fact that in those days, the studios just churned them out. It's a shame that today, with fewer films being made, more can't be "churned out" like this one. A top-notch cast, including Robert Taylor, Nazimova, Conrad Veidt and Norma Shearer do justice to a very good script which at times has you on the edge of your seat.

Robert Taylor plays an American who comes to Germany looking for his mother, a well-known German actress, who married an American and returns to Germany to sell her house. One can really feel his frustration as he frantically tries to find information on her whereabouts. Finally, he learns that she is in a concentration camp awaiting execution. Along the way, he has met Shearer, an American, who continued to live in Germany after she was widowed and is now seeing a German officer.

The film is heavy on propaganda, as Taylor comes up against citizens afraid to talk and nasty, uncaring Nazis. Even Shearer refuses to help him initially, and an old family friend pretends not to know him. Taylor does an excellent job as both a desperate man and a loving, tender son. Without giving the story away, he has one magnificent nonverbal moment where it literally looks like the blood has drained from his face. Shearer is lovely, and Veidt is alternately charming and scary. Nazimova plays Taylor's mother in a strong performance. Though she went outside the studio to get Tyrone Power to costar with her in "Marie Antoinette" rather than use Taylor, both Shearer and Taylor were under contract to MGM and would meet again for Shearer's final film, "Her Cardboard Lover."

Some of the final scenes of "Escape" are very intense. Highly recommended.