I expected a schematic diagram of German stereotypes and their evolution in this war-time film about the good folks in a classy Berlin hotel towards the end of the war. You know, lots of heel-clicking and "Heil Hilers" and Nazi officers shooting each other to save their own skin, and not to forget the Gestapo and the burning bamboo splinters under the fingernails.
Actually it's more thoughtful than that. The Germans -- Nazi and underground alike -- are trapped in the hotel like fish in a box net. Some of them are genuine douche bags, like George Couluris's Gestapo Commissioner. He gets the best lines and gives the best performance. Some are clearly good guys, like Helmut Dantine's escaped member of the underground.
Others are, well, in-between, in a manner of speaking. Raymond Massey, for instance, is an aristocratic general who has been involved in the plot against Hitler's life and is forced to take the gentleman's way out, though without giving up his Teutonic identity. Faye Emerson is the hotel whore who will do anything with anybody for a pair of shoes but undergoes a major change of values upon finding that her Jewish lover is still alive. Alan Hale is miscast and wasted.
Helmut Dantine, the traitor whom the authorities are desperate to capture, was a strange figure in the cinema. I can't think of an actor of the period who was more sternly handsome and less able to act, despite his looks and his great voice. Compared to him, a tree stump is operatic. His career was lengthy but undistinguished. I think his last appearance was in one of Sam Pekinpah's lesser works. Maybe Hollywood had no room for attractive German men. Martin Kosleck's career flourished. He looked like a rat and played nothing BUT treacherous Nazis. I think he was Goebbels three or four times.
The most complex character is Andrea King's as Lisa Dorn ("thorn" in German), the famous actress with powerful friends and a suite in the hotel that includes a bed the size of a football field. She switches allegiances with the speed of a pinball. At first she seems genuinely in love with Raymond Massey's dignified general. When his goose is cooked, she kisses the runaway Helmut Dantine. In each case her emotions are shown as genuine. I attributed this ambiguity at first to poor writing. Then I realized that some people actually ARE like this -- exploiting others and appearing to be incandescent with rectitude at the same time. It dawned on me that I've known people whose affections were ephemeral but whose self interest was the Rock of Gibraltar. Clever beyond the bounds of ordinary credibility. She's finally murdered in cold blood by Helmut Dantine. Good.
The film hardly drips with sentiment. It's pretty tough minded. And if it begins a bit deliberately, the pace picks up as the stories progress and the end is suitably both ambiguous and satisfying.
Actually it's more thoughtful than that. The Germans -- Nazi and underground alike -- are trapped in the hotel like fish in a box net. Some of them are genuine douche bags, like George Couluris's Gestapo Commissioner. He gets the best lines and gives the best performance. Some are clearly good guys, like Helmut Dantine's escaped member of the underground.
Others are, well, in-between, in a manner of speaking. Raymond Massey, for instance, is an aristocratic general who has been involved in the plot against Hitler's life and is forced to take the gentleman's way out, though without giving up his Teutonic identity. Faye Emerson is the hotel whore who will do anything with anybody for a pair of shoes but undergoes a major change of values upon finding that her Jewish lover is still alive. Alan Hale is miscast and wasted.
Helmut Dantine, the traitor whom the authorities are desperate to capture, was a strange figure in the cinema. I can't think of an actor of the period who was more sternly handsome and less able to act, despite his looks and his great voice. Compared to him, a tree stump is operatic. His career was lengthy but undistinguished. I think his last appearance was in one of Sam Pekinpah's lesser works. Maybe Hollywood had no room for attractive German men. Martin Kosleck's career flourished. He looked like a rat and played nothing BUT treacherous Nazis. I think he was Goebbels three or four times.
The most complex character is Andrea King's as Lisa Dorn ("thorn" in German), the famous actress with powerful friends and a suite in the hotel that includes a bed the size of a football field. She switches allegiances with the speed of a pinball. At first she seems genuinely in love with Raymond Massey's dignified general. When his goose is cooked, she kisses the runaway Helmut Dantine. In each case her emotions are shown as genuine. I attributed this ambiguity at first to poor writing. Then I realized that some people actually ARE like this -- exploiting others and appearing to be incandescent with rectitude at the same time. It dawned on me that I've known people whose affections were ephemeral but whose self interest was the Rock of Gibraltar. Clever beyond the bounds of ordinary credibility. She's finally murdered in cold blood by Helmut Dantine. Good.
The film hardly drips with sentiment. It's pretty tough minded. And if it begins a bit deliberately, the pace picks up as the stories progress and the end is suitably both ambiguous and satisfying.