Review – None Shall Escape

I just happened across this while scanning through the listings for movies that started around the time I turned the TV on. The description said it was about the war crimes trial of a former Nazi official, so I decided to check it out. My curiosity was well rewarded. This isn’t the most brilliant movie ever made about war crimes trials, but it is one of the few (if not in fact the only one) made in 1944, before the war was even over. The script was written by Lester Cole, who would later become one of the Hollywood Ten. Certainly there’s not much subtlety to be found here; the defendant is a bitter, homicidal child molester who has his own brother sent to a concentration camp. The end is never in doubt, but it’s accompanied by a speech by the judge that makes the whole thing (especially considering the title) seem like it’s designed not as much as propaganda for American audiences as a thinly-veiled threat directed straight at the German high command. Despite the ham-handed presentation, however, this is a fascinating little movie from an odd time in Hollywood history. Mildly amusing