IMDb > The Cross of Lorraine (1943)

The Cross of Lorraine (1943) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
6.5/10   255 votes
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Director:
Writers:
Lilo Dammert (story) and
Robert Aisner (story) ...
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Contact:
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Release Date:
12 November 1943 (USA) more
Genre:
Plot:
A group of French soldiers during WWII are captured by Nazis troops and sent to a military prison. There they will have to make use of his best resources to keep alive... and sane, while at the same time scheming a way out. | add synopsis
User Comments:
Light and shadow in every sense more (9 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)
Jean-Pierre Aumont ... Paul (as Jean Pierre Aumont)

Gene Kelly ... Victor
Cedric Hardwicke ... Father Sebastian (as Sir Cedric Hardwicke)
Richard Whorf ... François
Joseph Calleia ... Rodriguez

Peter Lorre ... Sergeant Berger

Hume Cronyn ... Duval
William Roy ... Louis (as Billy Roy)
Tonio Selwart ... Major Bruhl
Jack Lambert ... Jacques
Wallace Ford ... Pierre
Donald Curtis ... Marcel
Jack Edwards Jr. ... René

Richard Ryen ... Lieutenant Schmidt
Frederick Giermann ... Corporal Daxer
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Additional Details

Runtime:
90 min
Country:
Language:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Certification:

FAQ

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16 out of 16 people found the following comment useful.
Light and shadow in every sense, 27 June 2004
7/10
Author: Michael Bo (michael.bo@pol.dk) from Copenhagen, Denmark

Very effective American propaganda piece made in the beginning of the war and centered around a couple of handfuls of French soldiers capitulating at Marshall Pétain's order and being made prisoners of war in the German part of Alsace.

Director Tay Garnett was an acknowledged master of light and shadow, and not just in the cinematographic sense. Lots of issues are at stake here, and although all the characters are somewhat larger than life, the hesitant lawyer, wonderfully, luminously played by Jean-Pierre Aumont, and the cabdriver, acted by a young, doe-eyed Gene Kelly, both help to give human texture to the admittedly rather formulaic plotline, and neither is a hero in the textbook Hollywood sense. The most interesting conflict in the film would be how to deal with the Hume Cronyn character, a French soldier who sympathizes with the Nazis and serves as a translater / snitch in the POW camp. Should he be killed without a trial, or would that, even in wartime, be a violation of basic French principles of jurisprudence and democracy?

'The Cross of Lorraine' is a very, very good film and a far cry from American WW2 movies we see today, they are all much more banal and onesided.

The film was obviously inspired by Jean Renoir's ultimate antiwar movie, 'The Grand Illusion', and in its turn inspired Stuart Rosenberg's tough prison movie 'Cool Hand Luke'.

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