None Shall Escape

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.

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. Most of us know about the Jewish persecutions . 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 !! Because right now it's happening in the USA and it's horrifying . It does not happen overnight and this movie does a great job of building up to that !

Judgment at Nuremburg was a very successful film of the early 1960s which brought the atrocities of the Nazis into clearer focus for millions. It won an Oscar for Maxmillan Schell, who did a very good job in the film. However, that film was executed with grand intellectual examination; a great deal of emotional dialogue, and a few illustrations of the hideous actions of the Third Reich. This film, None Shall Escape, is also fueled by a great performance by Alexander Knox as Grimm, but avoids the intellectualism of Judgment at Nuremburg. Instead, it focuses on the personal and visceral actions of those involved in the Polish occupation. Made some 20 years before the Schell film, and though a bit dated, it captures the visceral aspect of the inhumanity of the Nazis better than its successor. A highly underrated film.

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. He betrays everything and everybody without an ounce of remorse. The performance is one of the most chilling performances I've ever seen. 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.

This one is tough to watch -- as an earlier reviewer says. 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 contrast, however, permits us to believe in the "conversion" of one young Nazi officer to an anti-Nazi stance. 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.