Undescribable Perfection

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

None Shall Escape is directed by Andre De Toth, has a screenplay by Lester Cole, is based on a story by Alfred Neumann and Joseph Thann and stars Alexander Knox, Marsha Hunt, Henry Travers and Richard Hale.This film was released just a year before the end of the Second World War. It shows the war being won by the allies and the Nazis going on trial before the world for their horrific crimes.The film opens with several high ranking Nazi officers standing trial. The first one to step before the judges is Wilhelm Grimm(Alexander Knox). Grimm refuses to apologise for his crimes. Through witnesses called to testify we are shown in flashback the terrible things he has done or ordered to be done by others. We also quite interestingly see what led to him becoming such a monster in the first place, he certainly wasn't born evil but he became so over the years.One of those testifying against him include his own brother who Grimm betrayed to the Gestapo. Other witnesses include Grimm's former fiancé Marja (Marsha Hunt)and Father Warecki(Henry Travers)the Priest of the town Grimm commanded during the war.Featuring strong performances and some quite graphic (for the time)and realistic scenes of violence this one stays with you long after it's finished. The entire cast are superb and Knox is excellent in the lead role, I think he's quite an underrated actor who should be better known today.

A title borrowed from Bible (book of Jeremy).This is an unique movie among the propaganda movies which were made in those dark years :history-fi best describes its screenplay ,for it depicts events that are still to come,predating Nürnberg (and the movie which dealt with the trials).The ending is astounding ,as the judge leaves the verdict to all of us.The screenplay is very intelligent since it follows a man's destiny since the end of WW1 and the doomed Traité De Versailles and explains WHY an embittered crippled man can turn into a Nazi.When the first world war is over ,Wilhem's (a sensational portrayal by Alexander Knox) fight has just begun:his fiancée Marja (a sensitive Marsha Hunt)feels it " so she walks out on me and makes me the town's laughingstock".Admirable sequences : -The two women in the tall grass:Marja trying to learn what really happened to Anna.-Karl at the ceremony :Wilhem,following Cain's and Joseph's brothers ' footsteps ,sends his own brother to a concentration camp,because he may endanger his career.-Some may regret the romantic affair between Marja's daughter and Wilhem's nephew ,call it corny :but it gives the movie its apex: Willie ,walking down the Church aisles while throwing his Nazis emblems on the ground ,a scene you will always remember.

Not only because this movie was made almost 70 years ago (at the time of writing/watching it the first time), but also because of the structure of the movie. It may feel a bit dated (no pun intended) and the effects certainly are, but the story is what counts and that is pretty strong indeed.The acting is more than good, though you can see where it does lead to most of the time. So while there won't be too many surprises, hopefully the drama itself and maybe a bit of the back-story of this movie will entice you. Don't be appalled by the court aspect of the movie, because very little of it actually plays in it.

This one is tough to watch -- as an earlier reviewer says. That is amazing considering the terrible films that came out right after WWII -- particularly the "liberation" of Dachau. It is clear that, as of the middle of the war, we knew exactly what was happening to the Jews. The sequence that shows a "transport" is vivid, almost as if based upon an actual newsreel (the Nazis liked to record their atrocities). Knox as the Nazi is brilliant. He charts the course of a Nazi career. That charting is particularly telling when contrasted with the reactions of other Germans, at first laughing at Hitler, then incredulous, and finally helpless. That contrast, however, permits us to believe in the "conversion" of one young Nazi officer to an anti-Nazi stance. That did happen, as witness the several attempts against Hitler, most notably the Staffenberg plot which occurred as this film was coming out. A strong film, effectively using flashbacks, accurately predicting the Nuremburg trails and others that would occur once the war ended.