Situation Hopeless -- But Not Serious

1965
A
1h 37m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Situation Hopeless -- But Not Serious (1965)

During World War II, a lonely German air-raid warden captures two downed American airmen and keeps them prisoner in his basement way past the end of the war.During World War II, a lonely German air-raid warden captures two downed American airmen and keeps them prisoner in his basement way past the end of the war.During World War II, a lonely German air-raid warden captures two downed American airmen and keeps them prisoner in his basement way past the end of the war.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.9/10

514

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

User reviews15

Featured review

4/10

Alles ist Kaput

Another film to be avoided by those currently being traumatised by lockdown. Or simply traumatised by lousy movies.

Even those who consider themselves knowledgeable about the cinema are unaware that Robert Redford ever made a film with Alec Guinness, and when they've seen this leaden travesty of Robert Shaw's 1960 novel 'The Hiding Place' they'll know why. Saddled with a noisy music score by Harold Byrns, director Gottfried Reinhardt seldom gets the tone right, the occasional bursts of slapstick being among the unfunniest things in it.

Poor Shaw's original story could have made a great film; but he must have watched this mess between his fingers. Alec Guinness hated both Munich and the film, writing that he couldn't "act comedy any more" and dismissing himself in the film as "a sort of lifeless doll impersonating myself in 'Lavender Hill' or 'Fr Brown'".

Austria ironically would have been a more apt setting, as there have been a couple of cases in recent years of maniacs keeping prisoners in their cellars; although their victims tend to be young girls (as in the same year's 'The Collector') rather than grown men.

Photos7

More like this

6.6

Torn Curtain

6.2

War Hunt

6.1

Inside Daisy Clover

6.3

Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here

5.7

Marriage on the Rocks

7.0

This Property Is Condemned

6.8

The Prisoner

5.9

Little Fauss and Big Halsy

7.1

7.9

5.8

6.4

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
The title is a variation of an old Viennese saying; "The situation is desperate, but not serious." A direct influence on the title comes from Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three (1961). In it, James Cagney coaches Horst Buchholz to tell Buchholz's American father-in-law that the situation is "serious, but not hopeless." A flustered Buchholz tells his father-in-law, "The situation is hopeless, but not serious."

Goofs
The opening shows B17s flying over Germany in 1944 but the aircraft from which the 2 parachutes appear is a C130 Hercules aircraft which didn't fly until 1954.