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Alex da Silva It's 1936 Germany and 7 prisoners escape from a concentration camp. The Commandant vows to get even and has seven trees cleared to hang each man from as he is captured. Can he see his plan fulfilled? We follow the plight of one of the prisoners – Spencer Tracy (George) – as he attempts to avoid capture and escape the country.The film starts off with a narration by Tracy's fellow escapee and leader of the breakout - Ray Collins (Wallau). Unfortunately, half an hour into the film and this guy is still narrating. Tracy has barely spoken at this point and it gets irritating. We don't need this narrator, let Tracy lead the proceedings. So, I'm afraid the film loses a mark for this. As it also does for the final half hour or so when the character of waitress Signe Hasso (Toni) is introduced. She serves no purpose whatsoever and is clearly put into the film to provide a love interest which just doesn't work. The age gap is ludicrous - Tracy is like her dad and would have no time for such a distraction given his circumstances. Lose another mark.However, outside of this, the story is gripping and you, just like the main character, don't know who to trust. The best in the cast is working class citizen Hume Cronyn (Paul) who is extremely likable but you still just don't know what will happen with him. There are several sequences of note including a couple in which Tracy roams around a couple of towns alone and witnesses other escapees getting captured. But, most of all, the audience can feel the tension in Paul's bid for freedom. Who should Tracy trust? The seventh cross is waiting for him

Robert J. Maxwell "The Seventh Cross." It sounds like one of those sword and sandal epics made at Cinecittá in the 1950s. "The Seventh Cross", starring Steve Reeves, Saltimbocca Galupo, and Bicchiera da Vino as the Queen of Sheba.Instead it's one of Fred Zinneman's understandably oppressive movies about seven escapees from a concentration camp in 1936. The narration tells us the fate of the fugitives. The Gestapo are hot on their heels. One by one they're caught and, it's hinted, crucified. Six crosses receive their victims. The seventh is reserved for Spencer Tracy, who slouches grimly through the movie, visiting places and people who might help, trying to get a place to sleep, enough money and forged papers to leave Germany, and -- above all -- those prison clothes he's wearing.It's not one of Tracy's better performances. The role rather restricts him. It's hard to put your tongue in your cheek and make wisecracks when your head is constantly at risk.Nice performances by supporting players. Hume Cronyn is fine as the cheerful factory worker who wants to help his friend, Tracy, but has his family to think about. The script gives him a pretty good job. Nineteen thirty-six was the Great Depression but Germany was rapidly pulling out of it, thanks to Hitler, who put everyone to work building weapons. Cronyn's wife, Jessica Tandy, is radiantly youthful, pretty in a way that's difficult to describe -- attractive, yes, but anaclitic too. She's more than what Hume Cronyn deserves. She's what I myself deserve. At any rate, she became Mrs. Cronyn in real life. Signe Hasso, as a femme de chambre, hits her marks as well, and she's sexy too.It's gloomy and in many ways depressing but the story is gripping too. The screenplay by Helen Deutsch doesn't give us many tag lines but generates a generous amount of suspense as the Gestapo close in on the errant Tracy and two independent forces try to help him but keep missing each other. It's a little odd for 1944. Not all the Germans go around goose stepping and giving the Hitler salute. Some of them resemble us normal people.I remember seeing it as a kid but recall only two images -- a Luger sliding into the mud and a man doing a swan dive from a high roof top. That was a long time ago, but the film is hard to forget.

sddavis63 Spencer Tracy headlines a fine cast as George Heisler, an escapee from a Nazi concentration camp in 1936 who has to depend on help from old friends to make his escape successful, all the while not really knowing who he can trust and being actively sought out by the Gestapo. The sense of fear and paranoia that's developed by the movie is quite ominous. Like Heisler, as the viewer you can never really be sure who can be trusted. Nazi Germany is portrayed (accurately!) as a dangerous place, unsympathetic to anyone who might be even remotely opposed to the regime. There's a sense of hopelessness here right from the start. Heisler is one of seven escapees - six of whom are quickly recaptured. Heisler himself feels totally alone, unsure who to turn to for assistance. He finally connects with an old friend (Paul, played by Hume Cronyn - whose wife Liesel was played by Jessica Tandy.) Not knowing that Heisler is a fugitive, Paul and Liesel take him in, and as they slowly discover what's going on, they become his hope and his lifeline.There are some major weaknesses to this, unfortunately, which prevent it from being a first-class film. Tracy's role is unfortunately limited. The first half of the story especially is actually narrated more than acted - the narration being offered by one of Heisler's fellow escapees who died, and the movie implies is watching over Heisler as he tries to stay out of the Gestapo's clutches. The movie would have been well advised to have taken better advantage of Tracy's considerable acting talents. The addition of a romance (completely out of left field) between Heisler and a local waitress in the movie's last half hour seemed bizarre and totally out of place. Probably because of the sudden focus on the quasi-romance, Heisler's ultimate escape comes across as surprisingly (and disappointingly) easy and undramatic.Aside from the believable portrayal of the bleakness of life in Nazi Germany, the movie is probably most surprising for offering at the same time a rather hopeful portrayal - the point is repeatedly made that not all Germans are soulless Nazis, and there are many individual Germans who take great chances to help Heisler. That was a bit surprising to me, since the movie was made during the height of World War II (in 1944) and as a result one might have expected a more negative portrayal of Germans than was actually offered. This was a good movie - it could have been a great movie if not for the weaknesses I mentioned above.

Michael_Elliott Seventh Cross, The (1944) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Hard hitting Ww2 drama has Spencer Tracy playing one of seven men who escape from a concentration camp. When the other six men are captured or killed, Tracy knows that the entire country will be looking for him so his desperate search for help grows more difficult. Whenever great WW2 films are discussed this one here hardly ever gets mentioned, which is a real shame because this film turned out to be a real gem that works on so many levels and once again features a great performance by Tracy. Zinnemann does a great job directing this film and what I loved most is the fact that Tracy's character is under constant threat of being captured and sent back to the camp. Tracy can't trust anyone and must take big risks in trying to reach out for anyone to help him and this here is perfectly captured by the director. There's a tense atmosphere running throughout the film and it's what I'd compare to a feather blowing in the wind. Tracy's performance has him, what seems like, floating through the air because we can feel the pain and terror in him of being caught. To make matters worse, he reaches his hometown where he must try and decide which of his former friends would help him and which would turn him in. Tracy's performance is very deep and intense but it seems as if he is walking on egg shells throughout the film and floating in the air. The way he moves about is something truly amazing to watch. Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy play a husband and wife who Tracy goes to for help. Cronyn nearly steals the film with his flawless performance. The only thing that hinders the film is some of the narration, which is a tad bit over the top at times.