Évasion

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.

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.

In 1936 Germany, handsome American traveler Robert Taylor (as Mark Preysing) arrives to search for his mysteriously disappearing mother Alla Nazimova (as Emmy Ritter), an actress who has been sentenced to death after breaking property laws and harboring German refugees. Taylor learns Ms. Nazimova is being held in a Nazi concentration camp. Like his mother, Mr. Taylor finds the country Germany has succumb to the authoritarian rule of a brutal Adolf Hitler…

Taylor receives little help from frightened Germans, but has better luck with finishing school headmistress Norma Shearer (as Ruby von Treck), the attractive American widow of a German Count. The two are mutually attracted, but she is also being courted by Nazi General Conrad Veidt (as Kurt von Kolb). The two are practically married. Ms. Shearer joins Taylor in a dangerous plot to get mother Nazimova out of the country before her scheduled execution…

Spiteful of some skittish plot points, "Escape" creeps up on you…

It's one of the better Hollywood-produced World War II dramas, with MGM and director Mervyn LeRoy capturing the horrific accentuation of Nazi consciousness over Germany with remarkable accuracy. Mr. LeRoy paces it accordingly; slow-starting suspense parallels the film's encroaching danger. Credit must be awarded novelist Grace Zaring Stone (writing as "Ethel Vance" to protect her own German relation), plus adapters Arch Oboler and Marguerite Roberts.

Highlighted by his tearful reading of a "farewell" letter, Taylor performs exceptionally; this is one of his best roles. In her last great film, Shearer is appropriately regal, classy and misty-eyed. The supporting cast is so good, it's strange to see Mr. Veidt and Nazimova did not receive "Academy Award" nominations for their work. Absent from films since 1925, "silent" screen actress Nazimova stages an especially noteworthy comeback. Like she, the film is a sleeper.

******** Escape (10/31/40) Mervyn LeRoy ~ Robert Taylor, Norma Shearer, Conrad Veidt, Nazimova

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!

This relatively unknown star vehicle is unusual for a number of different reasons. Although top billed, MGM Studio Queen, Norma Shearer's role is substantially smaller than co-star Robert Taylor's heroic turn as an American son desperately attempting to save his mother from a German Concentration camp. His mother is wonderfully played (and occasionally overplayed) by Nazimova, one of the great theatrical legends of the early 20th century. It's an interesting footnote, that it was Irving Thalberg who helped cut short the meretricious Nazimova's strange film career while his widow, Shearer, graciously allowed the former star to appear to great advantage in one of Shearer's last screen appearances. Conrad Veidt plays Shearer's Nazi lover and while he appears as icy and unyielding as he would two years later in "Casablanca", his character is softened somewhat by his un-disclosed illness and by Shearer's devotion to him. This film was one of the few made in Hollywood prior to the war which was openly critical of the Nazis (although they do hedge their bets by having a sympathetic German doctor, which gives the impression that more than a few intelligent German's disagreed with the Nazis. Significantly, this character does appear in full Nazi drag towards the end of the picture). Robert Taylor is given a very tricky part to play as a man determined to save his mother against all odds. With his masculine demeanor and his controlled sensitivity he gives a performance of great passion and conviction. Norma Shearer, looking regally beautiful and every bit the Countess, manages to convey the situation of a woman who desperately wants to help Taylor and leave her adopted country, but realizes that she must stay out of duty to Veidt, in spite of her true feelings. Felix Bressart also appears as the Nazimova's frightened but faithful servant, who helps Taylor escape. Bressart, who made a career of playing befuddled foreigners, is best known as one of the three Russian Communists in Ninotchka. Interesting casting was Bonita Granville, best known as the screen's all-American girl detective, Nancy Drew, here playing the role of a pro-Nazi student at Miss Shearer's finishing school (she would play a similar role in 1943's wartime propaganda film, "Hitler's Children"). The film was sumptuously mounted and stylishly directed by Mervyn Leroy the same year as he directed "Waterloo Bridge" also starring Taylor with Vivien Leigh. "Escape" is effective, at times shocking, but always vastly entertaining. Interesting footnote: Norma Shearer would turn down "Pride & Prejudice" and "Mrs. Miniver" both of which would turn Greer Garson into an MGM star much in the the same vein as Miss Shearer. Norma Shearer's last film, "Her Cardboard Lover" would also be opposite Robert Taylor.