The Seventh Cross (1944)

***SPOILERS*** Tense drama with a number-7-of prisoners escaping from a Nazi concentration camp circa 1936 who are being tracked down by the Gestapo and when captured crucified for their "crimes" against the state. One of them the saintly George Heister, Spencer Tracy, goes through the ringer in what he's confronted with in finding among his friends on the outside world who was willing to help him and, if arrested, suffer the consequences. As the film progresses George finds out just who his friends are by them willing to risk their lives and safety of themselves and their families in getting him out of the country before the Gestapo gets their hands on him.It's a tough grind for George with almost all those who try to help him end up getting arrested and sent to the local Nazi concentration camp in many cases being both beaten and executed. But as for George, who ends up with a nasty cut on his right hand, he if anything else learns that standing up, or in his case running away, to the Nazis is far better then giving into them and makes one, dead or alive, a much better person. All this running and hiding and in one case having the love of his life Leni, Karren Verne,who besides finding out that she's already married kicking him out of her house, she had since become a fanatical Nazi, and threatens to call the police on him soon starts to get to George. George finally gets help from his friend factory worker Paul Roder, Hume Cronyn, who after finding out he's an escapee from a concentration camp does everything to help him get legal papers and a passport, from the local anti-Nazi movement, to ship him out of Nazi Germany. This has Paul being ratted on by his landlady who after being arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo is let loose in telling and convincing them that he knows absolutely nothing.***SPOILERS**** Hold up in a local bed & breakfast in the port city of Mainz George uses his boyhood charms as well as inner and heart felt, women always go for that, hurt feelings in being hunted down like an animal by the Gestapo to get the maid Toni, Signe Hasso, to help him out in his plight. It was Toni who at first, before she got to really know him better, was about to turn him over to the police for a 5,000 mark reward. Beside escaping from a Nazi concentration camp what was the reason he was there in the first place for the Nazis to offer that much money or marks to have him captured? The movie never tells us why! George finally makes his escape from Nazi Germany via a Dutch freighter in the dead of night to start a new life in free Holland. That's until four years later-May 1940-when the German Army occupied it.P.S Based on Anna Segnes best selling novel of the same name-"The Seventh Cross"-that was to to later inspire Hans Werner Henz's 9th Symphony.

In the fall of 1936, the Germans are purging the rebels and sending them to the Concentration Camp of Westhofen. One day, there is a break out and the prisoners Pelzer, Bellani, Aldinger, Beutler, Fuellgrabe, George Heisler (Spencer Tracy) and the leader Ernst Wallau escape. They are hunted down by the soldiers and the camp commandant builds seven crosses to put each escapee on each cross. The bitter George Heisler heads to his hometown Mainz without any help and loses his faith in the German people. Meanwhile one by one of the prisoners are captured by the German soldiers. Once in Mainz, George seeks out his former girlfriend Leni (Karen Verne) that said that would wait for him but she is married and refuses to help him. Then he witnesses the suicide of Bellani and he meets his friend Mme. Marelli (Agnes Moorehead) that gives clothes and some money that she was keeping for Bellani to him. When George finally arrives at the address of his contact, he discovers that he had been arrested by Gestapo. Without any alternative, George decides to risk and visit his friend Paul Roeder (Hume Cronyn) and Liesel Roeder (Jessica Tandy). Meanwhile there are friends of George that want to help him but do not know where he is. Paul decides to help George with the support of his friend Fiedler (Paul Guilfoyle) and they bring George to an inn. But the waitress Toni (Signe Hasso) recognizes George and there is a reward of five thousand-Marc on him. What will happen to George?"The Seventh Cross" is a dramatic and emotional movie with a great story of lost and regain of faith in the mankind. The story follows George Heisler and is anguishing, especially because the characters live in a dark period where it is not possible to know who is reliable or not. The conclusion is another plus in this great feature. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "A Sétima Cruz" ("The Seventh Cross")

Seven men escape from a concentration camp in pre-WW2 Nazi Germany. The Nazis place seven crosses in the courtyard of the camp, with orders that each captured escapee be put to death on them. One by one the men are captured, save one. That man (Spencer Tracy) must try and find help so he can escape the country, though his experiences have made him cynical that there are good people left in Germany.Fascinating film with a nice script, fine acting, and beautiful cinematography by the great Karl Freund. Interesting technique of having Ray Collins' character narrate the movie postmortem, years before the more famous Sunset Boulevard did it. Spencer Tracy gives a terrific performance even though his character really doesn't speak much, especially in the first hour. The supporting cast is excellent, with Hume Cronyn a standout. It's a little overlong but worth your time.

The Seventh Cross is a film based on a novel by Communist author Anna Seghers. It's this kind of material that later got folks in trouble during the blacklist. Of course there were no Fifth Amendment problems for Ms. Seghers as she was an unabashed Marxist and proud citizen of the German Democratic Republic.For a Marxist author, she used religious symbols a lot. Before the days of the mass exterminations with the gas and the ovens, the Nazis used more traditional methods of extermination individually at least in the pre-World War II days of 1936. Modern day crucifixions were the order and that's what they have in store for Spencer Tracy and six other escapees.Tracy of course proves the toughest to catch. During his escape he meets up with all kinds of people, some who help and some who are ready to turn him in. By his wits and with a lot of luck Tracy survives to tell his tale. The Seventh Cross is quite the triumph for Tracy. Usually an actor who eschewed make up of any kind, he made an exception here as he had to be shown weak and with a bad pallor as a result of his hardships. Director Fred Zinneman, a refugee from Austria in fact, was given his first A picture assignment and got great critical acclaim and was well on the way to a two Best Director Oscar career.Zinneman assembled a good group of character players to support Tracy. Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy got their first notice in The Seventh Cross. And this has to be one of the only films where Kurt Katch was not a Nazi, but a member of the underground.Two things always stood out about The Seventh Cross. It seems to anticipate The Diary of Anne Frank in its message. Although they were certainly being rapidly rounded up, in 1936 there apparently were still enough decent folks around to help Tracy. At the end of the film a kind of roll call is read to the audience. And wasn't that Anne Frank's message, that people were essentially decent if you could reach that spark of it left in them?Also besides using religious symbolism, the author went on to live in another police state, this one of the making of her ideological companeros. And where be East Germany now?