None Shall Escape

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 leg. Before the war he lived in German occupied Poland as a school teacher and was not loved. Now that Poland has been reconstituted a nation Knox is even more unwelcome. 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 political beliefs. Knox's individual story is never lost against the background of the historical events taking place. Knox is fascinating portrait of studied and carefully nurtured cruelty. 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 to that old village.

One thing that was most assuredly not true. The film notes the friendship of Catholic priest Henry Travers and Rabbi Richard Hale. The film deserves praise for recognizing what would later become the holocaust. 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 whom he tries to create a mirror image of himself, and Trevor Bardette the 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 current climate.