User reviews

As one previous reviewer briefly mentioned this is based on an army training film.The film was made in 1944 by the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Film Unit and called "Resisting Enemy Interrogation"(REI)The main difference between the two films is that the beginning and end are completely different.REI was a training film and it ended with a lecture from Lloyd Nolan.After being told that the raid had been a disaster he spends the last 5 minutes telling his audience"NEVER TALK".In this film there is about half an hour of daring do with a more positive outcome clearly more appropriate to a post war film.However for the time when the airmen are captive this film borrows almost in its entirety the script of REI.If you have a video/DVD machine then you can do what i did.Run one sequence of REI and then one sequence of this film.The words i assure you are identical.What i find most intriguing is the proposition that captured airmen could be falling for the tricks highlighted in this film and in REI.Were the crew so naive and where the Germans so sophisticated and urbane and clever?

I watched the film today . I had no great hopes for it as I had never heard of it.

The Times said So so. On reading the other reports I watched it and was pleasantly surprised how good it was.

It was one of the cleverest war films I have seen because it discussed how the prisoners of war were asked questions.

The German interrogator said "They don't know they know" he followed this up with "There is no such thing as an innocent question and no such thing as a valueless statement"

The point was he was able to piece together from various comments that the prisoners made what was going on and what the next raid might be about. This was even though the prisoners did not know the details of the raids themselves.

A clever idea and well executed.

Also for a US film they did not show the British and French characters as clichés.

Worth watching a few times.

This movie idea came from info tapes the Air Force showed pilots in case they were shot down. It shows how Nazis get crucial information from downed pilots that even the pilots don't know they know.

Any other veterans who watch "Target Unknown" may have the same thought I did. This would be a good training film to show to all recruits in all branches of the armed forces. And so, it apparently was based on a training film made in 1944 for the American forces. Years later, I did see some short films when I joined the Army during the Cold War just before the Vietnam War. Those were along the order of docudramas about the carelessness of talking in public, especially in bars, cafes, and public places where one can easily be overheard. I can't recall what they were, but one of them might actually have been the WW training film, "Resisting Enemy Interrogation."

Of course, since WW II, Army and Air Force recruits who go into the combat ranks (infantry, artillery, tanks and air crews) get special training that exposes them to POW treatment. In advanced infantry training, I went through a 3-4 day escape and evasion course. Troops who are captured go through simulated enemy interrogation and methods to get GIs to give any information other than their name, rank and serial number. The interrogators try some of the friendly gestures seen in this film, like offering one a cigarette and coffee and trying to strike up friendly conversation.

This film is set in World War II, but was made as the Korean War was taking place. That was before Korea was finally labeled for what it was - a war. As a feature film, this movie is superb at showing how people can be manipulated to tell things that may seem harmless to them, but that an enemy can use in piecing together pictures just like jigsaw puzzles.

Prisoners of war are obliged to give only their name, rank and serial number. Those are the criteria established by the Geneva Convention for POWs. Signs were posted around military bases during the war to remind service men and women not to talk about their jobs, units, assignments, plans or operations when on leave or passes. "Loose lips sink ships" was one of the most familiar signs..

In a way, a couple of the sergeants in this movie seem not to be very moxie about keeping tight lips. They were nothing like the seasoned NCOs I met and knew in the U. S. Army. And, this film is an exaggerated example of POW handling by the Germans. The reality for most POWs was torture by the Gestapo if the Nazis wanted crucial information, otherwise shipment to the nearest concentration or POW camp. But this is a good example of how in favorable, comfortable, and even friendly surroundings, some men could let their guards down and more naturally be open.

The example of Gig Young's Capt. Reiner as an American who became a Nazi is interesting. While rare, it's important to know that there actually were a few such individuals during the war. More often than this though, people who sided with Nazi Germany instead served as spies in their homeland, or as instruments to stir up the public to keep out of the war or to support Germany

This isn't a particularly powerful film. It's a fictional story and the cast all do a good job in their roles. It's a good film to make people aware that efforts take place to learn information and secrets between opposing forces in times of war. And, it is a good reminder for those serving in the armed forces about the need for common sense caution and silence during wartime or hostile relations.

Listen to the German Colonel and his weasly Leutnant. If that isn't Basil Rathbone dubbing Herr Oberst and Peter Lorre talking through the little guy, I'll turn in my deerstalker. And why wasn't Ward Cleaver given a credit? And why are the Germans transporting fuel in US Army deuce and a halfs? But Gig Young as Fred Reinhardt, good gig, guy. Makes you realize how the Germans are more like us than we'd like to think.