Evasión

Robert Taylor is in Nazi Germany in search of his mother, a former prominent stage actress played by silent screen star Alla Nazimova. He meets a whole bunch of people in his quest, some who help and some who hinder. One of them is an expatriate American Norma Shearer who is the widow of a German Count and now involved with an Army General played by Conrad Veidt.

Essentially that's the plot of Escape and a clever plot is hatched to help Nazimova escape from a concentration camp. With a few unexpected curves thrown in the way and a not so happy ending for two of the principals, you can probably figure the rest of it out.

The most interesting character in the film is Conrad Veidt. He's a whole lot like the character Burt Lancaster played in Judgement at Nuremberg. A man who has disdain for the Nazis, but when they succeed in gaining power, he accomodates himself to the new regime as did so many in the German Armed Forces. But for something that happens to him in the film, I can see Veidt before the bar of justice at Nuremberg after World War II.

Robert Taylor plays a 20th century version of Armand Duval, the part he successfully played opposite Greta Garbo in Camille. It's another role as a callow youth. He was getting old for those kind of parts and I think upon seeing him in Escape, MGM realized this. Taylor would be getting more mature parts from then on.

Norma Shearer is the American girl essentially trapped by her now noble title in Germany. She's turned her spacious living quarters into a girl's school and she's living a genteel life, but one filled with anxiety. Eventually she has to choose between Taylor and Veidt and at the end of the film, fate makes the choice for her.

Veidt and Shearer do the best jobs here. Taylor was now 29 and not suited for the Armand kind of part anymore. Still he does a good job and others to watch for are the ever dependables Alfred Basserman, Felix Bressart and Phillip Dorn.

As a Norma Shearer fan, I looked for this movie for years and finally found it on TCM (hail the great god, Ted Turner!). First of all, I was surprised to find a movie made so early in the years of WW2 that actually brought up the topic of concentration camps, and the reason why Robert Taylor's mother is to be executed (she helped Jewish refugees leave for America -- "Jew" is never mentioned, but it is obvious). The performances are top-notch, and it was nice to see Nazimova toning down her usual grande dame-isness. I've never been a Robert Taylor fan, but this movie has one of his best performances as he alternately bucks authority in the good old American way and puts up with the Nazi-Gestapo badgering. Norma Shearer is fine, even though her role is small, and her scenes with Conrad Veidt (playing her Nazi suitor) are very effective. You can see her democratic side gradually gaining strength against Veidt's facism as she sees more and more of Taylor and his own dilemma makes her question her present beliefs. It's a must-see.

In the Ethel Vance novel, the role of the Countess is even smaller than it is in the film. The story has been re-structured to fit MGM's Norma Shearer (still the Queen of the lot at the time) and Robert Taylor. Taylor, always an underrated actor, gives one of his most forceful, sensitive and earnest performances as an American trying to free his mother from a German prison camp and seeking the help of the Countess to achieve his goal. Suspense builds as the Nazi menace (Conrad Veidt) threatens to destroy any hope he has of enabling his mother to escape.

Handsomely produced, although much of the Alpine scenery has a studio-bound stage setting look, it gives us a glimpse of Norma Shearer's aristocratic beauty and Robert Taylor in his prime--which should be enough for some movie fans. Added to that is the suspenseful story and an excellent supporting cast--including Nazimova as the mother, Felix Bressart and Bonita Granville as a pro-Nazi sympathizer. It all moves rather smoothly under Mervyn LeRoy's direction, a glossy melodrama that unfortunately has never made its way to video. Well worth watching, so catch it if you can on one of the cable stations.

Robert Taylor (Mark) arrives in Nazi Germany to seek out his actress mother Alla Nazimova (Emmy Ritter) who seems to have disappeared. In reality, she is in a concentration camp awaiting execution. Taylor comes up against a brick wall whenever he asks about her and it takes the help of doctor Philip Dorn (Dr Ditten) for him to find out the truth, and he must then prepare to make his escape.

It's an interesting storyline that gets you involved from the beginning. Personally, I liked the German characters of Philip Dorn (I think he deserved a "Thank You") and Nazi General Conrad Veidt (Kurt) the best. There is also a good performance from Albert Bassermann at the beginning of the film where he is left pondering the meaning of the word coward. Incidentally, the lady playing his wife is his actual wife, Elsa Bassermann. I felt that Robert Taylor played his role as a bit of an ungrateful bastard and emerged as quite unlikable. I don't think he was realistic and I couldn't relate to him. And his old pal Felix Bressart (Fritz) was a comedy nitwit character that could have been really annoying, but as such, was just mildly annoying. Nazimova is good in her role as the mother and is involved in some memorable scenes as she is smuggled out of the concentration camp, despite being in a coffin. Is she dead or alive?

There are good scenes of dialogue between Conrad Veidt and his lover Norma Shearer (the Countess), especially when he calls her stupid. Ha ha. Nice one, Conrad. He throws some comedy out there - another example occurs when he confronts Robert Taylor about Taylor's thoughts and sense of humour - yet he still manages to retain a threatening personality. It's a shame that the film decides to give him a weak heart. The ending seems all rather convenient. And check out the bit with the stolen passport and how Nazimova makes herself up to look like the student girl's picture. Freaky!

MGM was among the first studios to treat the impending war with films like IDIOT'S DELIGHT (1939) and THE MORTAL STORM (1940); another such effort, despite its generic moniker, was ESCAPE. As with the former, it was apparently a Leslie Halliwell favourite – maybe he had a particular fondness for Norma Shearer, since she stars in both!

This is the superior film, however, given its early depiction of a concentration camp and the suspense inherent in the title. Shearer's co- star here is yet another silver-screen heart-throb and MGM fixture, Robert Taylor, though – unlike Gable in the afore-mentioned IDIOT'S DELIGHT – his relentless seriousness renders him a dull lead (only really coming into his own when breaking into the Nazi salute as he complains "I've had it up to here!" and again towards the end in his confrontation scenes with nominal villain Conrad Veidt). The latter, fine as always, plays a character somewhere between his sympathetic German of the Powell & Pressburger films THE SPY IN BLACK (1939) and CONTRABAND (1940) and the full-fledged Nazi he memorably essayed in CASABLANCA (1942). His initial disapproval of the brutal regime tactics eventually makes way for a compulsive adherence to duty (though a heart condition ultimately proves his undoing – ironically, the actor would himself succumb to this affliction within three years!).

He begins to suspect that his lover (Shearer) may have forsaken him for Taylor – who has been making a nuisance of himself while tracking down his mother (Silent star Nazimova), a former theatrical celebrity but whose misguided attempts at helping German refugees have landed her in a death camp. Thanks to an admiring doctor, she is induced to a comatose state, so that she can then be ostensibly transported to a proper burial ground (accorded her once-respected stature) – but Taylor is forced to seek shelter along the way in Shearer's home, which also serves as a finishing school for girls (who, as in IDIOT'S DELIGHT, seem to consider a dashing military career as the epitome of romance!).

The film has the expected gloss and entertainment value of a typical MGM product but, as I said, reasonable tension is also elicited out of its 'premature burial' situation and the unorthodox resolution of the obligatory love triangle at the finale (of which, as in the earlier Shearer picture, two versions were filmed and are compared in a "You Tube" clip).