Others have summarized the story line of this movie. I just wanted to record my reaction to this movie, which I found to be a very mixed bag.
At its best, this is a very dramatic movie with great cinematography, wonderful facial acting - primarily by Spencer Tracy - and great suspense.
When it is not at its best, this movie has flat dialogue that too often gets preachy - not all Germans are bad. Perhaps in 1944, when this movie was released, it was felt that Americans needed to be reminded of that as American troops first started to take significant losses starting with the D-Day landing in Normandy. Like the main character, who decides to focus on those who helped him escape Germany rather than those who tried to kill him there, perhaps Americans needed to be told that revenge against the Germans was not what we needed to focus on. Still, those preachy moments in the movie felt preachy to me.
Watch this for the good parts, the suspense, especially in the early part when there is more narration than actual dialogue. Tracy does a wonderful job conveying emotion with just his face.
At its best, this is a very dramatic movie with great cinematography, wonderful facial acting - primarily by Spencer Tracy - and great suspense.
When it is not at its best, this movie has flat dialogue that too often gets preachy - not all Germans are bad. Perhaps in 1944, when this movie was released, it was felt that Americans needed to be reminded of that as American troops first started to take significant losses starting with the D-Day landing in Normandy. Like the main character, who decides to focus on those who helped him escape Germany rather than those who tried to kill him there, perhaps Americans needed to be told that revenge against the Germans was not what we needed to focus on. Still, those preachy moments in the movie felt preachy to me.
Watch this for the good parts, the suspense, especially in the early part when there is more narration than actual dialogue. Tracy does a wonderful job conveying emotion with just his face.