|
Register Now!
|
|
Register now for vtap for the fastest and easiest way to watch web video on your mobile device!
|
|
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.
In Nazi Germany in 1936 seven men escape from a concentration camp. The camp commander puts up seven crosses and, as the Gestapo returns each escapee he is put to death on a cross. The seventh cross is still empty as George Heisler seeks freedom in Holland. Written by Ed Stephan





