The Seventh Cross (1944 film)
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| The Seventh Cross | |
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| Directed by | Fred Zinnemann |
| Produced by | Pandro S. Berman |
| Written by | Helen Deutsch Anna Seghers (novel) |
| Starring | Spencer Tracy Signe Hasso Hume Cronyn Jessica Tandy Agnes Moorehead Herbert Rudley Felix Bressart |
| Music by | Roy Webb |
| Cinematography | Karl Freund |
| Editing by | Thomas Richards |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) |  July 24, 1944 |
| Running time | 110 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Seventh Cross is a 1944 film starring Spencer Tracy, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.
This was the first feature film directed by Fred Zinnemann, later noted for films such as High Noon. Cronyn was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in the film. It was the first film in which Cronyn and Tandy, who were married, appeared together.
The movie was adapted from the novel of the same name by the German refugee writer Anna Seghers. Produced in the midst of the Second World War, it was one of the few films of the era to depict a Nazi concentration camp or mention persecution of Jews.
The film was an acting tour de force for Tracy, who is silent for long stretches of the film and has little dialogue.
Prominent Swedish actress Signe Hasso, despite her second-place billing, actually has only a small role toward the conclusion of the film. MGM publicity played up the minor and fleeting romantic element, with the tag line "The revealing novel of a hunted man's search for love!" In fact, in both the novel and film, the protagonist is seeking escape, not a relationship.
Refugees from Nazi Germany played many small roles, with a small bit part played by Helene Weigel, the prominent German actress and wife of Bertolt Brecht.
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[edit] Plot summary
The year is 1936, and as the film opens, seven prisoners are escaping from the Westhofen Concentration Camp in western Germany near the Rhine. They represent a cross-section of German society: a writer, a circus peformer, a schoolmaster, a farmer, a Jewish grocery clerk, and two prisoners who are apparently political activists. One is George Heisler (Tracy) and the other is his mentor Wallau (Ray Collins), the leader of the group.
The commandant erects seven crosses and vows to "put a man on each." The first to be apprehended is Wallau, who dies without giving information and now narrates the film. The film follows Heisler as he makes his way across the German countryside, stealing clothing and watching as the Nazis round up every other escaped prisoner, to the indifference of the local population.
Despite the overwhelming brutality of his countrymen, Heisler does receive help. Still, he is soured to the German people and humanity in general. He makes his way to his home city of Mainz. His contact there has been arrested. He cannot visit his family, because they are being watched, so he goes to his old friends, Paul and Liesl Roeder (Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy). These are humble, apolitical working people with young children, but they still agree to risk all to help him.
Roeder gets in touch with the German underground, whose members risk their lives to get Heisler out of the country. Through his exposure to this courage and kindness, and with the help toward the end of a sympathetic waitress (Hasso), Heisler regains his faith in humanity. Thanks to their help, he escapes to Holland on a cargo ship.
[edit] The novel vs. the film
The author of the novel from which this movie was adapted, Anna Seghers, was a Communist, and Wallau and Heisler were Communists in the book. In the film, their political affiliation is not given.
The film also conformed to Hollywood norms by showing Heisler, who seeks aid from a girlfriend at one point, as unmarried. In the novel, he is married and had been cheating on his wife.
Though sentimental and largely depoliticized, the film manages to capture the spirit of the Seghers novel.
[edit] Awards and nominations
- Best Supporting Actor (nomination) - Hume Cronyn
