The Scarlet and the Black

There are not too many movies I could say I like but this one was great. The acting is really good from all the actors.. The story was very serious, It is a very tense movie. The Nazi's take over Rome and watch everyone.

Col Kappler, a Nazi is in charge of the base in Rome. He commands his men to put a white painted line near the Vatican where those in the Vatican have to stay behind the line and supposedly his soldiers won't cross it.

Gregory Peck plays a Irish Catholic priest who plays Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty. He heads a group of people in Italy that hide people in safe houses from the Nazis. Kappler has the priest followed everywhere to see who his friends are and who is hiding the people. O'Flaherty is aware of this and out smarts the soldiers and dresses up in different disguises to meet those in charge of his group.

Col Kappler despises O'Flaherty because the priest defies him in many ways. Kappler has a wife and two kids that live in Rome and are very spoiled. They are the only people Kappler cares about plus getting praised for his military successes.

Kappler and his soldiers have to leave Rome. There are soldiers coming in to get them out. He has failed and wants O'Flaherty to get his family out. Kappler talks about forgiveness and what the priest believes but the priest does not buy his attempts to get him to save his wife and children and tells him off.

This is a very serious part. Gregory Peck plays a man of strength through God, bravery in really tough times, trustworthy, faithful and full of love for his fellow man.

You have to watch it yourself. The end is very good and has some surprising results.

Remember Henry II's oblique wish about his former friend Thomas Becket which got carried out? Christopher Plummer tried more explicit methods to get rid of his meddlesome priest all without success.

Although Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, an Irish national attached to the Vatican staff, was providing aid to refugees of all kinds from the Nazis before, this film covers a period between September of 1943 and June 5, 1944 when Mark Clark and the Fifth American Army liberated Rome.

Gregory Peck plays the resourceful monsignor who's got a whole bag of tricks from the land of leprechauns to outwit the Nazis. He develops quite a network of people who house escaped prisoners. When Italy threw out Mussolini and switched sides in World War II, a whole lot of Allied prisoners were freed and roaming the countryside. You might remember the novel and film Von Ryan's Express which detailed that phenomenon. The word got out if you could make your way to the Vatican, Monsignor O'Flaherty could help.

What I like about The Scarlet and the Black is the fact that Peck's chief antagonist Christopher Plummer is shown as a three dimensional character. We see him as the ruthless Nazi who dogs Peck and his operation every step of the way. We also see him as father and husband who's enjoying Christmas in Rome with his family and also acting like any other tourist taking the family to see the sights of the Eternal City.

Peck and Plummer are a pair of well matched antagonists. Presiding over it all is John Gielgud as Pius XII. The criticisms I have of Pius occur before he reached the Papacy in 1939. At the point in time that The Scarlet and Black is taking place, there was very little he or anyone else as Pope could have done. He feared, probably with good reason, an Avignon captivity situation for the Papacy if he appeared to be overtly pro-Ally. And of course the Soviet Union which was his big fear was an Ally.

I would recommend watching this film about a good man who happened to be a priest who stepped up to the plate when no one would and fulfilled a great need. A whole lot of lives were saved because of him.

I am not a Catholic myself, however, the story of Msgr Hugh O'Flaherty must be the most forgotten true story of the Second World War! It also gives us an inside view of the politics the Vatican faced in the 1940s and, presumably, today! The film reminds us all, that whatever the situation, there are always people who are prepared to help. O'Flaherty went beyond this. He hated the British, but saved many British (and American airman) from certain death. His actions saved the lives of thousands of Jews in Italy at not only great personal risk to himself, but to the others in his organisation.

There is talk today of making John Paul 11 a Saint. Surely somebody at the Vatican will remember this humble Monsignor who did (at the time) more to help mankind than anyone is such horrific circumstances. When I can afford it, I will visit this man's grave and say a silent prayer. I don't want a TV film crew there, but I want to say "Thank You" to a man who gave his all to save the free world! A certain telephone company ran a series of advertisements many years ago, asking who in History would you most like to talk to. For me... it would be Mons. Hugh O'Flaherty. At the moment in time, only this film, an area of trees and a gravestone honour this man. Surely he deserves more? An outstanding film, well cast, excellently photographed. Tension, intrigue, drama, even humour (dressing up as a Nun?) I say everyone should view this film. An inspiring, true life film.

The film focuses on the dangerous situation faced by the Holy See in standing up to Nazi oppression. The Vatican, after all, has no military power and after the forcible confiscation of the Papal States by Italian nationalists during the pontificate of Pius IX near the close of the 19th century, he and at least two of his successors considered themselves as prisoners in the Vatican of the secular Italian state. Ignoring the warnings of the Popes against supranationalism in encyclicals like Non Abbiamo Biscogno and Mit Brenender Sorge, Italy and Germany persisted in pursuing social orders based on Fascism and Nazism. Yet despite the difficulties, many Catholics and religious like Msgr. Flaherty performed their Christian duties heroically by saving some of the persecuted Jews.

John Gielgud makes a very convincing Pope Pius XII. Sir John aged very gracefully giving him that perpetual angelic half smile on that kind face. Contrast this to the fact that we remember him well as the blackguard Casca in Julius Caesar (with James Mason and Marlon Brando). As Pius XII, Gielgud portrays the late Pope as torn between his duty to ensure the safety of the Church and Catholics and the necessity of actively participating in rescuing the Jews of Europe lest that provoke the Nazis towards more brutalities. The recently released Actes et Documents du Saint Siege relatiffs a la Guerre Mondiale Seconde (Acts and Documents of the Holy See relative to WWII or ADSS) reveal that the Holy See saw a relation between increased persecution of both Jews and Catholics, especially the religious orders, every time Pius XII spoke against the Nazis. It also disclosed that Jewish leaders, both in and out of Nazi Germany, advised the Pope to speak and act more discreetly because of this.

Gregory Peck is, as usual, dignified, likable and very convincing as a brave Catholic monsignor. An interesting political sidelight in the movie concerned Flaherty saving some British Tommies stranded behind enemy lines in Italy. One of them obviously not one fond of the Irish, upon hearing Flaherty's Celtic brogue exclaimed that he was Irish. Flaherty's response was to the effect, that he may not like what the British were doing in Ireland but it was still his Christian duty to help them. Remember, at the time Southern Ireland was still under British rule under very repressive conditions (cf. Leon Uris' book, Trinity).

If you liked movies of this genre you should also see Portrait : A Man Whose Name was John which starred Raymond Burr as the Papal Nuncio in Turkey, Msgr. Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII who used his position and his chancery to save thousands of Jews escaping from Nazi-occupied Hungary. Other Hollywood films which treated the Church kindly if not sympathetically are: The Shoes of the Fisherman (Anthony Quinn) and The Cardinal (Tom Tryon).

This is a pretty good movie. Gregory Peck and Christopher Plummer are strong in the leading roles, but the edge goes to Plummer. Peck's on-again-off-again Irish brogue is distracting, but he makes an acceptable hero. Plummer, on the other hand, is deliciously wicked--charming on the outside, ruthless underneath. Even so, there are occasional glimpses of a less-brutish man; a man who loves his family and wants them to be safe; a man not entirely content with the horrors he has helped to create. So, when Plummer is forced to ask his archenemy for help, we can feel a bit sorry for his shattered pride and can share some of his resulting disillusionment and despair. One of the really wonderful moments in the movie comes at the end. Kappler is asked a question and the camera moves in for a close-up of his face. He doesn't have to say a word--the answer is in his eyes. Fantastic! This inspiring story of heroism and courage is also, ultimately, about forgiveness and about asking ourselves what we would have done. It's an excellent reminder that one should never under-estimate oneself--one good person can do a heck of a lot!