Address Unknown

This is a must see with all the drama coming from tiny choices that add up and how you can be seduced by evil for nominal reasons. Well worth tracking down.

This movie was made from a tiny, now classic 1938 book by Kressmann Taylor (her full name was Kathrine Kressmann Taylor) that was written in the form of letters only between the two lead characters.

As such it is not only a brilliantly conceived horror story of how an evil idea poisons a society but how it continues on to destroy life.

The small book was re-issued in 2001 by Washington Square Press and at this writing currently available. No matter how you reacted to the movie this is a must read. It can be read in a single, short sitting but it packs an incredible wallop. The little story is compared to the best writing of O. Henry for its sly plot twists and lauded by Kurt Vonnegut who compares it to WWII as what Uncle Tom's Cabin was to the Civil War.

You can then return to the movie and enjoy it at a far deeper and more profound level. Beyond all of that…if Paul Lukas is in a film, any film, you can trust that it is worth watching if only for his performance.

Paul Lukas gives probably a career-best performance as a businessman who becomes seduced by Nazi ideology when his return to Germany coincides with the rise of Hitler. Director William Cameron Menzies piles on the tension in the final third of the film without gloating over his antagonist's increasingly precarious situation, and by doing so he strengthens the film's power and message immeasurably.

I say this movie is good but a bit late because this tale of the progression of Nazism in Germany is very good but the timing awfully late. When the first film debuted, WWII was practically over--whereas films with similar themes, such as "Mortal Storm" came out before the US entered the war--and did a lot to turn public opinion against Nazi Germany. Heck, in 1944 saying the Nazis were bad and repressive wasn't exactly controversial in the United States--as we'd been fighting them for three years!

The film begins in the 1930s. Paul Lukas and his wife and kids (minus the oldest one) are leaving the US and moving back to Germany. They also decide to take their god-daughter (who is Jewish). Once there, Lukas slowly turns from a nice family man to a Nazi-lover. In the process, all sense of right and wrong seems to disappear from him. And, when his beloved god-daughter is in trouble, he refuses to help. At this point, there is a neat twist in the film involving coded messages and revenge. I won't say more, as it would spoil the film. Suffice to say that this twist gives the film a nice and fitting ending.

The acting, mood and story are all quite good and the film worth seeing. While not a great film it is clever and well-written--and a very good propaganda film to galvanize the folks at home in the war effort.

This is a fascinating movie on a number of levels.

For anyone who loves the look of films such as "Citizen Kane' or film noir, there is plenty to offer here. The director, William Cameron Menzies, was also a brilliant art director and he went to town on this picture. Just look at the camera work; he and his crew must have shot half the film from a pit in the floor judging from the dramatic angles.

The film is set a few years before WW2. Martin Schulz (Paul Lucas) and Max Eisenstein (Morris Carnovsky) run a successful art gallery in San Francisco, Both are German immigrants and are close friends. Martin's son, Heinrich, (Peter Van Eyck) who also works in the gallery, plans to marry Giselle Eisenstein, Max's daughter (K.T. Stevens). Max is due to return to Germany with his wife, Elsa (Mady Christians), to expedite the buying for the gallery. At the last minute, Giselle breaks off her engagement to Heinrich, and also decides to go to Germany to further her acting career.

In Germany, Martin communicates with Max and Heinrich back at the gallery by mail; through his letters they sense that Martin is falling under the spell of the Nazis. Eventually this hurts Martin's relationship with Max, who is a Jew.

Martin's seduction by the Nazis, and the advantages they offer has similarities to John Halder, Viggo Mortensen's character in the more recent "Good". Both are weak men who are easily led, and both turn their backs on a Jewish friend.

Much of the plot of "Address Unknown" hangs on the letters that go backward and forward between San Francisco and Germany. As the film goes on, we learn how powerful these communications are, especially with the Nazi censors involved.

Giselle's Jewish background puts her in jeopardy when she appears in a play. Interestingly, the lines she speaks, which offend the Nazi censors, are actually the words of Jesus from the "Book of Matthew".

"Address Unknown" has a couple of scenes that really hit home, with one that would have done Val Lewton proud, and has an ending with a twist worthy of an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".

Although heavily stylised, the film highlights the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany, but "Address Unknown" was made in 1944, and the war didn't end until 1945. Films made during WW2, give an insight into what was influencing audiences at the time. Although the full extent of what had been going on in Germany didn't come to light until after the war, "Address Unknown" shows that the plight of the Jews before and during the war was far from a complete mystery.

The film is more restrained than some of the more strident films made during WW2, and it's somewhat abstract quality has prevented it dating all that much.