Thanks for the memories!

Brilliant and touching

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It's 1936 Germany and 7 prisoners escape from a concentration camp. The Commandant vows to get even and has seven trees cleared to hang each man from as he is captured. Can he see his plan fulfilled? We follow the plight of one of the prisoners – Spencer Tracy (George) – as he attempts to avoid capture and escape the country.The film starts off with a narration by Tracy's fellow escapee and leader of the breakout - Ray Collins (Wallau). Unfortunately, half an hour into the film and this guy is still narrating. Tracy has barely spoken at this point and it gets irritating. We don't need this narrator, let Tracy lead the proceedings. So, I'm afraid the film loses a mark for this. As it also does for the final half hour or so when the character of waitress Signe Hasso (Toni) is introduced. She serves no purpose whatsoever and is clearly put into the film to provide a love interest which just doesn't work. The age gap is ludicrous - Tracy is like her dad and would have no time for such a distraction given his circumstances. Lose another mark.However, outside of this, the story is gripping and you, just like the main character, don't know who to trust. The best in the cast is working class citizen Hume Cronyn (Paul) who is extremely likable but you still just don't know what will happen with him. There are several sequences of note including a couple in which Tracy roams around a couple of towns alone and witnesses other escapees getting captured. But, most of all, the audience can feel the tension in Paul's bid for freedom. Who should Tracy trust? The seventh cross is waiting for him

Adolf Hitler Hated the Communists Almost as Much as Joe Macarthy. In this Film, Spencer Tracy Plays a "Leftist" that was Incarcerated in a Concentration Camp in 1936 and Along with Six Other "Undesirables" Escapes and Becomes the Last One Still on the Run.This is the Backdrop of this Stylish, Depressing, and Clear-Eyed Portrayal of Germany, its Citizens, and the Glimmer of Hope that Remains Deep in Their Souls as the Nazis Offer Employment while Stealing Freedoms.The Direction from Fred Zinnemann and the Cinematography of Karl Freund along with a Spectacular Cast (even down to the Extras) make this One of the Best WWII Era Movies that Attempted a Story Based on Life During Wartime.Spencer Tracy's Sombre, Determined Lead Performance is Enhanced by Everything Around Him that Plays Out in an Almost Surreal Environment Involving the Situation that Germany's Citizens Deal with in Everyday Life. In the Quiet Desperation and a Robotic Surrender to Their Plight Enters Tracy as a Homeboy Seeking Help from Friends.Here is where the Movie is More Complex than Most of its Ilk. It is Thoughtful, Fair, and Delivers a Thinking Man's Story that One Might Call Anti-Propaganda, for it is Even Handed in its Message and its Portrayal of Ordinary People Placed in Extraordinary Situations. The Only Flaw is a Forced and Fast Romantic Conclusion that Weakens the Ending of an Otherwise Superb and Undiscovered Film.

Seven inmates escape from a German concentration camp in 1936. The Nazis round them up, one-by-one, and hang their bodies from crosses erected on the grounds. Only George Heisler evades the dragnet.He seeks refuge in his hometown of Mainz, in a terrifying journey. He watches a comrade commit suicide, and suffers betrayal by his former girlfriend. Meanwhile, German resistance volunteers try desperately to find George.Halfway through the film, he decides to look up an old friend. Hume Cronyn completely steals the show as the armaments worker, Paul Roeder. As soon as he joyfully calls out George's name, the entire mood of the film changes from relentless terror to suspenseful optimism.This is an unusual Hollywood movie for 1944. Most films of the era portrayed Germans as irredeemably evil. "The Seventh Cross" differentiates between Nazis and German anti-Nazis. It shows how ordinary people, like Paul Roeder, can rise to the occasion during a moral crisis.George Heisler is right when he says, "There are no better men than Paul Roeder."

As I watched this rather dull, plodding film with its strange narration I began to have a sense of fright beginning to build up. The work-a-day folks, the villagers and laughing children-very home-like, very much like here. The occasional scenes of brutish Nazi's were not to terrifying as the everyday citizen's acceptance of the new order. The movie portrayed this so well in the almost blank faces of the extras as they witnessed people being taken away and that awful suicide from the rooftop. Watching this film made me realize that-yes-it could happen here. Kudos to those faceless extras that brought home the real atmosphere of such an awful time.