The Tenth Man (1988 TV Movie) User Reviews

Great story, great acting, but feels like an 80s made-for-tv movie (which it is)

[rooprect · 7/10 · 3 February 2020]

"The Tenth Man" is a screen adaptation of the powerful novel by Graham Green. Set in 1940s France at the time of the Nazi occupation and its aftermath, it tells the story of a man who does something despicable to save himself and later comes face to face with those whom he wronged. It's a great story with excellent acting by Anthony Hopkins and Kristen Scott Thomas, and well worth watching. However, you should bear in mind that this was a made-for-tv movie in 1988 for the Hallmark Channel.

This means its presentation suffers from a lot of dated clichés, such as a saccharine Hallmark Channel musical score that often detracts from the powerful acting, bright lighting & sets which give it a slightly cheap look, and it also feels a bit rushed in pace, not giving the dramatic moments enough time to sink in. But if you can overlook these small flaws, the story and acting will sweep you away.

Though set during WW2, this is not a war movie, there isn't much violence, and when there is violence it's handled in a safe PG-13 way. This is mostly a sentimental film that focuses on the characters' feelings more than action and plot twists. The plot does get twisty toward the end, bordering on crime thriller, but really this movie is more for people who enjoy slow, nostalgic films with themes of regret, forgiveness, morality and a dash of romance.

I would compare this film to "Somewhere in Time" (1980) though the stories are nothing alike; they both share the same sentimental vibe, a bit syrupy in presentation but with first class acting and a great story.

He that dies this year is quit for the next....

[rmax304823 · 8/10 · 9 August 2009]

I was surprised at how gripping this story turned out to be. I've never been that fond of Graham Greene. Somebody commits a sin, mopes around feeling gloomy, and it all ends unpleasantly. That happens here, too, but the plot is lifted out of the ordinary by the simplicity of the story and the splendid acting.

Anthony Hopkins commits a sin -- I guess. It's a sin I would have jumped to commit myself. He's one of about two dozen prisoners in a Nazi cell in France, three of whom must be chosen by lot for execution. Hopkins draws one of the three X's. He's scared witless and offers his estate, lands, money, and all other properties to anyone who will take his place. A young man accepts the offer in the name of his sister, Kristin Scott Thomas, and their mother -- two poor people living near Paris -- then goes to his death.

After his release, Hopkins wanders around and, with no particular place to go, winds up at his old estate, now dilapidated. Thomas and her moribund mother live there. They reluctantly invite him in and he winds up being the caretaker.

The problem is that Thomas knows all about the transfer of the estate and she hates Hopkins real character for buying his own life at the expense of her brother's. She has a pistol stashed away, hoping he'll show up so she can shoot him. Hopkins tells her nothing of his real identity, only claiming to have been in the same prison with Kristin's brother and having witnessed the transfer.

The old lady is bitter but in a very human way. Hopkins finds himself enjoying his new role in his old home. And Thomas gradually warms towards him -- still ignorant of who is really is. The mansion and its grounds begin to take on a more respectable appearance.

So far, so expectable. But then an impostor, Derek Jacobi, shows up claiming to be the original Hopkins. In reality, he's a nobody, thoroughly evil -- a collaborator, murderer, and accomplished liar. He invents all sorts of stories to glorify himself and to undermine Hopkins' status in the household and in Thomas's eyes.

I don't think I'll give away too much more of the plot. The man incapable of feeling guilt squares off against the man dying from a surfeit of it. Let's say that Hopkins does his penance and it's more demanding than one Our Father and Ten Hail Marys.

Hopkins gives one of his most striking performances. Not nearly as splashy as "The Silence of the Lambs" but at least as effective. He rarely does what we'd expect from a more routine enactment of his roles. I'll give one example. He and Thomas are alone in the kitchen of the big run-down estate, and she has just discovered one of Hopkins' lies -- a little one -- and she accuses him. Hopkins stares quietly back for a second, then drops his face and brings his fist to his mouth to gnaw a bit at his knuckle or fingernail, just like a man jostling along in a crowded subway might do in a state of mild distraction. Absolutely without bravura, and yet perfectly apt.

Derek Jacobi looks right for the part of the very villainous heavy, in that his appearance is bland and his manner tentative except when it slides into deliberate slime. Nice job.

Kristin Scott Thomas is a fine actress but she may not belong in the part of a superstitious working-class peasant. She's neatly groomed. Her cool blue eyes glow with intelligence. And her features are clean and even. She has the face of one of those exceptionally efficient nurses who know everything that's going on in the ward. I can't imagine her fingernails ever having been dirty.

All around, a memorable job by everyone concerned.

Solid Classical Thriller - The Tenth Man

[arthur_tafero · 7/10 · 11 May 2021]

Graham Greene was a very talented writer, who churned out several good works; this among them. The film stars two heavyweight actors, Anthony Hopkins and Derek Jacobi (after he ruled Rome in Claudius). The plot is ingenious and fascinating, and the tension in the film holds for over an hour. I was very happy to see that Greene did not opt for a typical Hollywood ending and stuck to his guns in the true Shakespearian sense. The film drips with Shakespearian devices and nuances. Highly recommended.

younger brother of the 3rd man

[filmalamosa · 7/10 · 13 May 2012]

A WWII dark story by Graham Greene (who also wrote the Third Man).

A prisoner makes a deal with another prisoner to save himself from being executed they swap places in exchange for everything the one owns including a secluded mansion.

I won't spoil the story or bore you (if you have seen it) with more of the plot.

It is well done...the acting good...the screen adaptation of the book not ponderous like they sometimes are trying to cram too much in.

Anthony Hopkins like Anthony Perkins before him was type caste by one horror role. This younger version of him makes it easier to forget.

A good watch. RECOMMEND.

A Forgotten (Almost) Classic

[MogwaiMovieReviews · 7/10 · 6 September 2022]

In Nazi-occupied France, a well-to-do businessman is imprisoned by chance and trades all his money and possessions to another prisoner in order to escape execution. Once released, he travels back to his old home and there encounters the bitter family of the man who took his place...

It's a good distance from the perfection of The Third Man, but this largely-forgotten TV adaptation is still a thoroughly engrossing story, much better than the great majority of cinema releases in a similar vein. It's better early on, and ends a little weakly, but all the turns of the plot keep you watching.

Anthony Hopkins is truly first rate, and the script is fine, even if the camerawork, music, direction and general production values are strictly from a 1980s made-for-TV movie. All the other actors are solid, although the young Kristin Scott-Thomas, not yet fully-formed, is slightly miscast as a working class woman with a continually appearing and disappearing amateur dramatics cockerney accent.

With more money, time and care, this could have been just as much a classic as The Remains of The Day or The English Patient, but even as it is, it still remains one of the better adaptations of Greene's work.

Solid Made for TV Movie

[norty840 · 7/10 · 9 June 2008]

I just watched The Tenth Man for the first time last night. Anthony Hopkins is one of my favorite actors and he did an amazing job with the lead role. The plot, which could have very easily been predictable and stale was made fresh and interesting considering the plot twists. My only complaint is that the end seemed a little hurried and unsatisfying. Maybe because it had to work in the confines of TV time. Any time Anthony Hopkins stars in a movie you know it has a chance to be good, and The Tenth Man lived up to that standard. Aside from the ending which seemed hurried like I said, I thought there was one logic issue that didn't make sense to me and it has to do with people not recognizing him. Other than that, great movie.

Superb, unjustly neglected gem

[jsmith-348 · 9/10 · 26 September 2009]

In the late 1980s, I had just seen Anthony Hopkins in "The Bounty," which together with the earlier "Magic" convinced me he was an actor to watch for; and I had read Graham Greene's recently unearthed little novel "The Tenth Man," when I heard about this TV adaptation. My excited anticipation was not disappointed, and since then I have probably seen this little gem 25 times, often screening it for high school students, who watch in rapt fascination. The plot is amazing -- as only GG could concoct -- and I am still convinced this is Hopkins's best performance. Also superb are Kristin Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi, Cyril Cusack and Brenda Bruce. Production values are strong if not stellar (after all, it's made for TV). Too bad this film is all but unavailable -- you'll have to buy a used VHS online if you want to see it; but you won't be sorry.

Tragic WW2 tale of a wealthy Frenchman captured by Nazis.

[TxMike · 21 October 2012]

I found this one on Netflix streaming movies. I like all of the actors here, and found this to be a nice story.

It is the 1940s and France is occupied by Nazi Germans. Anthony Hopkins, about 50 during filming, is French lawyer Jean Louis Chavel. He lives in a stately home outside the village of St Jean du Brinac, and has an office in town. He is known and respected by many townspeople.

One day his fate turns as he walks back to his office after lunch. the Nazis are gathering up men, they need ten but only have nine, until they spot Chavel attempting to make himself invisible in a recessed doorway. They unceremoniously take him, in spite of his protestations, and throw all of them in prison, for no reason. But the shock really arrives when the guard tells the roughly 30 total men, they will shoot and kill one of every ten the next morning at 7AM, three total. And he further suggests that this time he will let them pick among themselves which 3.

To quickly state the result, which gets us to the main of the story, Chavel by blind lottery is one of the 3 chosen to die the next morning, but he bargains with a sickly man, who has a sister and mother he wants to take care of. So the bargain is this, if Chavel will write a gift contract to give a sum of money plus his house and land to his sister and mother equally, and have it witnessed by two prisoners, he will die in the place of Chavel. The contract is given to a disinterested party to deliver.

Kristin Scott Thomas, who was about 27 during filming, is the sister, Therese Mangeot . One day, three years later, he shows up at his former house, looking for a meal, but not identifying himself correctly. He correctly figured she would not be happy to meet him, responsible for her brother's death. So as a "friend" of her brother's he stays and agrees to do some work around the estate in exchange for food, lodging, and a small salary.

All is running well, and the two are starting to take a fancy for each other, until another man shows up, claiming to be Chavel. Derek Jacobi is The Imposter . This upsets everything, and the real Chavel has several new challenges to figure out.

All in all a very nice movie.

SPOILERS: Eventually the real Chavel has to expose the imposter, but this leads to an altercation, the imposter has a small handgun, he shoots, and Chavel is mortally wounded. He bought a new life while in prison but his fate was only postponed for a short time.

To save life of one's own life gives some un usual twists in later life

[dr-hgj2006 · 7/10 · 27 June 2021]

This is not suspense movie at all.... but a tricky self selection order for 30 people ....a CHOICE to choose which three..to be shot dead.... in some military revenge ..... they opted for a lottery and one of rich guy offers his wealth in exchange of his selected chit ! But the A Hopkins controlled underplay and the heroine will sure win your favor..

The necessity and complications of hidden identities in the war that never can conceal or cure the traumas

[clanciai · 10/10 · 31 July 2020]

A typical Graham Greene story, with many human factors, many human weaknesses, many human lies and many strange turns in a very human story. Anthony Hopkins is a very ordinary citizen, a very bourgeouis lawyer, well off with a chateau-like house outside Paris, working in Paris, when he goes in to town to work in 1940 gets rounded up by the Gestapo and put in prison on a waiting list for death. Although he shouldn't, he survives three years in that prison, while several of his fellow prisoners have been shot. He looks up the sister of one of them, Kristin Scott Thomas, and they become very good friends, until there is Derek Jacobi, who turns out to be a collaborator with the Germans, trying to take Kristin Scott Thomas for himself, which of course Anthony Hopkins can't quite accept. Perhaps the flaw of the story is its very human weakness, predominant in almost all of Graham Greene's novels. Here he should have told Thomas the real truth from the beginning and reveal who Jacobi really was, which he didn't which results in the consequences. It's perfect acting, a great human drama, a beautiful film and above all with wonderful music by Lee Holdridge, ideal film music for this kind of film. It is both one of Anthony Hopkins' and Kristin Scott Thomas' best performances in very delicate and tricky parts, she always does well in France, and this film and story is all French and very French. It's about the resistance in the war, the German tyranny, the intricate psychology of freedom fighters and collaborators, the son of Max Ophuls once made a very explicit film about this, clearing it all up in a unique documentary, while this film only touches on the problems and is focussed on the human factors. In brief, no Graham Greene admirer or reader of his books could be disappointed by this splendid feature on quite an intimate and chamber music level.

Top acting

[lbunyak · 9/10 · 7 September 2019]

Hopkins is fantastic in his role as a victim to circumstances he can't control. The small gestures acting is the most difficult one but he manage to convince the audience.

Needed A Better Director And Cameraman

[boblipton · 5/10 · 5 January 2022]

When the Germans invade northern France, they round up a hundred local men, including Anthony Hopkins. Being Nazis and all, they announce that ten of the prisoners will die, and leave it up to them to decide who. They decide on lots. Hopkins is one of the ten. He trades his lot with Timothy Watson, in return for all his goods. Watson leaves everything to his sister and mother.

Three years later, a bearded Hopkins is free and goes to his estate, where Kristen Scott Thomas and an ailing Brenda Bruce are in possession. They wait with fear and hatred Hopkins' return, so he claims to be a nobody and gets a job with them as a common laborer. Then one day,collaborator and fugitive Derek Jacobi, the son of one of the other men in the hundred, shows up, fleeing from the Resistance. He claims to be Anthony Hopkins.

It's based on a novel by Graham Greene that he turned into a script and left in the MGM archives in the mid-1940s. Director Jack Gold handles the film like it's a TV movie with enough of a budget for some extra location shooting. Hopkins plays his role in a repressed combination of shame for what he has done, love for Miss Thomas, and fear for the consequences of any revelation. With a better director, or a better lighting cameraman, the role might have worked. As it is, those who are familiar with Greene's world will understand what is going on. Those who approach it without any background will just find it bizarre.

You can't go wrong with this one.

[miniwidge · 10/10 · 11 August 2000]

I remembered this movie (and subsequently ordered it) because of Anthony Hopkins' incredible role. When I received it from my movie retailer, I realized that the other actor in it was Derek Jacobi, who has become my favorite actor of all time. To top it off, the woman is Kristin Scott-Thomas who hadn't come into her own yet. This is an amazing cast, from a novel from an amazing author. Watch it! Watch it!

Good write up and the End

[MatrixMachine · 10/10 · 27 June 2021]

This as a movie a good write up and well acted. You can never assume the climax in this one and the end sure was contradicting.

Some people over here judging it on the basis of not being depicted as true French, that doesn't fits well for a movie, which is just a movie.

And as a movie/drama, it is well directed and acted upon.

Personally, I'd have seen both of them living happily in the end of the movie.

wonderful adaptation

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 12 September 2021]

Anthony Hopkins stars with Kristin Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi, Brenda Bruce, and Timothy Watson in "The Tenth Man," an adaptation of a novel by Graham Greene.

During World War II, an attorney in Pris, Jean Louis Chavel (Hopkins) is picked up on the street by the Nazis and thrown in a group prison with other men. It's part of a routine roundup. Wrong place, wrong time.

The men are informed that three of them will be executed in the morning because of some French malfeasance. The group is to choose who will be killed. The prisoners rip up a letter and mark three with an X. They then each draw a piece of paper from a shoe.

When Chavel draws a paper with an X, he panics, and offers 100,000 francs to anyone who will take his place. The men laugh. How could anyone enjoy the money from there? However, one man, Michel Mangeot (Watson) is interested. He has a bad cough, and at this point, would rather die than stay in horrible conditions.

Chavel offers him 300,000 francs and his country home. He signs everything over to Mangeot. Mangeot then writes a will, witnessed by two prisoners, and leaves everything to his sister and mother.

Three years later, the war over, Chavel is a free man. He is a man with nothing and must beg on the street. He walks to his old house. There he sees Therese, Mangeot's sister. She is used to hobos coming to the house for food and offers him some. He gives her a fake name.

Chavel then realizes the deep hatred Therese and her mother have for this Chavel, a coward who let their brother die. Therese's dream is that she will meet him and spit in his face. Then she intends to kill him.

Needing help with the house and grounds, she has Chavel stay and work for her. Over time, an attraction develops. Then one night, during a storm, there is a frantic knock at the door. The man (Derek Jacobi) identifies himself as Jean Louis Chavel.

Normally I take these things for what they are, but I did wonder how Chavel managed to live imprisoned over the next three years, and also if anyone else was executed.

This film serves as a reminder of several things - committing something one perceives as a bad deed does not make the person bad, everyone has good and bad in them, and hatred that is allowed to fester cannot bring any happiness.

Hopkins is fantastic as a terrified man who has no understanding of what's happened to him. Through his performance, one really feels the horror of being picked up and taken from your life for no reason.

Kristin Scott Thomas beautifully portrays a lonely, angry, bitter woman who has isolated herself from the world.

The production values are good.

"The Tenth Man" is truly a gem that deserves a DVD release. It is a powerful film.

Very Slow Drama Set To WW2 Backdrop.

[verbusen · 5/10 · 6 August 2006]

I just want to add a little balance to the glowing reviews here saying this one of Anthony Hopkins "best". Ummm, I don't think so, and it's not his doing. The Tenth Man starts out with a LOT of promise as Hopkins character a French Lawyer is rounded up in a hostage sweep by the Nazi's on the streets of Paris. Now I guess that could have happened but something tells me even Nazi's aren't that stupid to take one of the french upper crust in a hostage sweep and why after he was forced to go to the castle prison someone didn't come to get him out, I guess poor planning on his part not to have a contingency for that. Anyway he is in a cell with other hostages used as reprisal against the resistance. Not long after he is imprisoned the Nazi's call for every tenth man to be taken out and shot and the Nazi's the sadists they are tell the prisoners to chose. Hopkins draws the lot and pleads for mercy, and than offers his rich estate to anyone who will take his place. A young drifter takes his offer, does an impromptu will and gets shot in the morning. About 3 years later Hopkins is out of prison finally because France has been liberated (yeah I know, they were shooting guys 2 days into his captivity and somehow he makes it through 3 years, go figure). Hopkins is a wreck of a man goes back to his estate, tries to live there as a landscaper and falls in love. The girl there, the dead guys sister, has a burning passion to see the guy who "killed" her brother, she hates him with all get out. Anyway, after the prison scenes which are maybe 20 minutes, its 80 minutes of a really drawn out melodrama. The sisters character has absolutely no pity for why they got in this situation and blames only the rich guy, the rich guy is scared to tell her the truth, some others come along to expose him, she after living with this guy a long time still has no sympathy for him, the bad tattletale shoots Hopkins in the heart, and I just saved you 100 minutes to do other things. I guess a chick wartime flick but with the sister being such a b##ch it was hard to get into it, I am glad I watched the ending though so I could see how it all turned out, not pretty. Definitely NOT Hopkins best but he is of course good, its just the script that sucks. I recommend "Random Harvest" for a better watch pertaining to war, lost identities, and love.

Some fine actors manage to make an implausible story work.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 13 January 2024]

"The Tenth Man" is a story from British writer Graham Greene which is very well written and engaging...though also ridiculously improbable. You really just need to accept the strange plot and go with it. I could and think you should give it a try.

The story begins in Paris in 1940, during the German occupation. A group of innocent civilians are rounded up and are being held in prison. The reason they were taken prisoner is that some German official has been killed by the Resistance and the Germans are going to execute several of these prisoners in retribution. The men are told to decide among themselves which three will die...and they decide to draw lots. Chavel (Anthony Hopkins) is among the three. In a panic, he offers any of the other prisoners a deal. Chavel is financially well off since he's a lawyer, and he promises to trade everything he owns if someone will take his place. One of the prisoner agrees...though later Chavel tries to get him to take back his offer. Eventually, they draw up an agreement and it is taken to the prisoner's family...so they'll be able to leave their terrible apartment and move into Chavel's country house.

Years pass...all during which Chavel remained in prison. Upon liberation, Chavel makes his way to his country house...not to try to reclaim it but to see who is living there now. He finds the dead prisoner's sister, Therese, and mother are living there...and the sister (Kristin Scott Thomas) is bitter. She hates Chavel and holds him responsible for her brother's death...and she has no idea this homeless man who has appeared at her home IS Chavel. Not surprisingly, Chavel pretends he is someone else. He stays for the night...intending to leave the next day. However, Therese asks him to stay as the caretaker and he agrees.

Some time passes, and a man who SAYS he's Chavel (Derek Jacobi) arrives late one rainy night. Of course, he is NOT Chavel and cannot be...and the real Chavel realizes the man is a criminal of some sort. Amazingly, Therese invites him in to stay the night...though it's because she plans on shooting him! What's next?

As you'd expect with these fine actors that the acting would be very good...and that is the strength of this film. They are also able to make an unbelievable plot seem plausible and engaging. It could have come off as very phony and too implausible...and instead is a special film indeed.

Atonement and Forgiveness

[susan-75066 · 10/10 · 18 December 2021]

I picked this movie at random and I was pleasantly suprosed. No blood or guts, but a suspenseful story of one character atoning for his sins. And, also a story of forgiveness which is very hard to do. A little sappy but. LI loved it!

Trading a ticket for life...and death.

[mark.waltz · 9/10 · 15 August 2022]

"You should have been an actor!" An ironic conversation between two British acting legends, Anthony Hopkins and Derek Jacobi, both liars, but for different reasons. One is with good intentions, and the other is for pure evil. It's right after the end of World War II, and Hopkins is using an alias to visit his old home, having switched identities with a dying man in a Nazi prison so he could live and the man's sister would inherit his house. Kristen Scott Thomas is the sister, living in Hopkins' old home with her ailing mother.

When Hopkins shows up, he pretends to have known her brother but lies about his real identify, knowing that the name of "Chavel" would bring on pain since it was his name the brother died with. Along comes Jacobi using the name of "Chavel", and it becomes a game of cat and mode between the two acting legends of keeping the truth secret and each other utilizing their knowledge against each other for their own benefit. It's only when Jacobi goes too far that Hopkins must fight as dirty as Jacobi did.

This version of the novel by Graham Greene is a powerful war drama set both during and after the war, and obviously the two commanding actors work extremely well together. Scott is a lovely heroine, yet feisty when she gets angry, spitting in Jacobi's face when he identifies himself. The film is quite sly in revealing all of the twists and turns, and the supporting cast is very good, although rather limited to the men in prison with Hopkins (obviously wrongly imprisoned), Scott's mother and a doddering old vicar. Beautiful production design adds to the mood, highlighted by the photography and musical score.

Implausible

[orkneyislander · 3/10 · 28 August 2021]

Hopkins is an accomplished actor but this movie and its 'hole-ridden' plot along with some amateurish 'ham' scenes let it down. So many 'holes', not least the fact that someone who had grown up with Chaval as a boy and then lived in the same small village as him (albeit in the poorer quarter) as an adult, couldn't recognise him after only three years absence! Maybe made for an English speaking audience, but as actors they could have surely at least put on a French and German inflection with their accents. The very Brit accents detracted from what there was of any realism.

Fascinating premise.

[bombersflyup · 8/10 · 2 October 2022]

The Tenth Man is an engaging film, with a fascinating premise.

A free man, but now with nothing. The lesson learned is not with Chavel though, it's wealth bestowed through sacrifice only yields guilt and hatred, not happiness. The intensity in the film tapers off a little. Not because of Anthony Hopkins though, he's superb. However Chavel makes some odd decisions; like at the start why didn't he just go back into the restaurant and then why run into the open when they say they want one more... Then later when looking to see if the guy's gun's been fired while asleep, why not take out the bullets, which in turn of course results in his death. Can't be an act of redemption though, as she could've been shot as a result instead.

A tough ending for Therese

[chaswe-28402 · 5/10 · 17 December 2016]

All films are inherently impossible, but this impossible story is so far-fetched and unconvincing it might work better if it were set in another universe. A totally unrealistic moral and intellectual conundrum involving sin, guilt, and atonement, as well as life and death, in many ways typical of Greene at his worst. The 5 stars are for the acting, which is competent, even skilled, but the writing is not good. Perhaps I should dock more stars, but I suppose the questions are mentally and philosophically engaging.

The actors do their best with the story, which really is fantastic. Greene wrote it in 1944, and then forgot about it for 40 years, until the early 1980s. And I'm frankly not surprised. Its first appearance in book form seems to have been in 1985, and the TV film appeared in 1988.

It gives an impression of being vaguely based on the crucifixion story, with Chavel, one man (of three) buying his life by giving another, named Mangeot, all his property and allowing him to take his place for execution, thereby incidentally redeeming the (non-existent) sins of the remaining Frenchmen, both in and out of prison. The Germans represent the Romans in this scenario. The imagery is picked up visually by having the three execution posts arranged to resemble crucifixion sites. You expect the three prisoners fated for death to arrive carrying their crosses. An additional philosophical implication is that since we are all going to die, does it matter when ? Or was the sacrificial lamb about to die soon anyway ? I thought he had a nasty cough.

Most of the other reviewers seem quite willing to disregard the enormous plot holes, although at least one notices that the Germans were shooting prisoners after two days, but Hopkins/Chavel makes it through three years. Go figure. After that, every plot objection is covered by some convenient special circumstance. The mother of the sacrificed boy thinks he earned and has bought the property that she and her daughter Therese have been given, and is unaware of the way he died. There seem to be no photographs of Chavel in the house, beyond the age of about ten. Nobody anywhere recognises him behind his beard.

In the end, the mother dies, and Chavel is pointlessly shot dead by a murdering impostor, thereby atoning for his shabby behaviour. I give up, but it is definitely hard on Therese, the sister, who has done nothing wrong at all. She is surrounded by her dead mother, her dead brother and her dead would-be lover. Still, she ends up with the château, the land and the cash. The Third Man is a long way better than this.

Simply terrible!

[alcorcrisan · 1/10 · 24 May 2022]

I was almost ashamed to watch this. It beggars belief how such illustrious literary and cinematorgraphic names are put together and the result is such rubbish. The scenario is like some Swiss cheese long after its shelf life had expired, the décors are cheap in every possible way, and the acting reminds one of some provincial town local amateurs' painful output.

Predictable

[pgooden · 5/10 · 8 July 2019]

We know he will pay the price for his act. I find it hard to believe that no one recognized him in the village since he walked trough there every day- The beard wasn't much help.AH was superb as always.The one thing that grilled me was that, why,if set in France ,did they. use British actors with an accent .?

It ain't I Claudius!

[ravitchn · 2/10 · 10 February 2018]

Derek Jacobi is always for me the Emperor Claudius. Every other character he has played leaves me cold. This is a very clever story about French people during and right after the Nazi occupation from 1940-44. But the people all speak good English and act nothing at all like the French. The Germans of course act like Germans, brutal, vicious, violent as we expect them to be.

I guess one could sympathize with Clavel and his dilemma as the one who sent Therese's brother to his death. But Anthony Hopkins here is not the Hopkins we have come to appreciate and love. He seems very wooden to me. I saw this on MGM HD quite by accident and it seemed to have prospects but I have nothing really good to say about ti.