USA,
1944, 85 min
Shown in 1997
CREDITS
- dir
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Andre de Toth
- prod
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Samuel Bischoff
- scr
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Lester Cole
- cam
-
Lee Garmes
- cast
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Alexander Knox, Marsha Hunt, Henry Travers
- source
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Columbia Pictures Repertory, 10202 West Washington Boulevard, Thalberg Building, Culver City, CA 90232. FAX: 310-280-1399
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COMMENTS
Andre de Toth Tribute. Andre de Toth appeared in person.
OTHER
André de Toth's second American production is a remarkable achievement, an intense, at times almost harrowing, experience that deals with the issue of what to do with Nazi war criminals—not on an impersonal level, as did Judgment at Nuremberg a few years later, but on a one-to-one basis. How do a group of Polish villagers—a priest, a young woman—handle the trial of their Nazi overseer? The idea for None Shall Escape came from an October 1942 speech by Roosevelt, in which he argued that both the Nazi ringleaders and their henchmen needed to be named, apprehended and tried. Having already filmed the invasion of Poland in 1939, de Toth was anxious to direct this first film to consider the eventual fate of Nazi war criminals. Aiming for realism, de Toth was able to persuade Columbia Pictures to cast a jury that included one African American (a small but substantial blow against segregation onscreen) and to avoid casting as the Nazi the stereotypical Paul Lukas in favor of the lesser-known and more believable Alexander Knox. None Shall Escape established de Toth as a major figure in the American film industry. Said The Hollywood Reporter: "His work has the fresh tang of unbridled daring in some respects, and in others seems to borrow from techniques we have long known but forgotten how to use."
—Anthony Slide
FACTOID #191
The first screenwriter to receive a Festival tribute was Truman Capote in 1974. At the tribute he confessed that, in his opinion, Audrey Hepburn was too chic for the role of Holly Golightly. He would have preferred the then unknown Tammy Grimes for the role.
