Situation Hopeless -- But Not Serious

Some excellent acting and several funny scenes but apart from that not much, I am afraid. A very weak plot, I dare say.

A recent biography of Alec Guinness says that he did not think too much of this film. He felt it was a rehash of characters he played before like in The Lavendar Hill Mob or The Man In The White Suit. Why he took it is a mystery unless this was the best he was being offered at the time. One thing he did note to his wife Merulla was that he felt that Robert Redford was going to be a big star.

Situation Hopeless...But Not Serious is one weird film. It has some interesting and funny moments in it, but it's just way too weird.

Guinness is some quiet and nebbish like German who in the waning days of World War II when two American fliers Captain Robert Redford and Sergeant Michael Connors take refuge in his basement, he locks them up there and they become his own private prisoners. Not that he treats them bad, he just craves company since he has no friends. On V.E. Day had he let them go, no harm no foul. But Guinness keeps them on through 1946.

I could probably draw a lot of conclusions as to why Guinness's character was so wanting their company, but the Code was still somewhat in place. And as Guinness was a repressed gay Catholic man his whole life, this film must have hit close to home.

For the strangest Alec Guinness film out there, check out this one.

Situation Hopeless - But Not Serious is a little seen curate's egg.

If it was not for an early appearance by Robert Redford, it would have been lost to the midst of time. Even though it stars Oscar winner Alec Guinness.

He plays the meek oddball lonely drug store clerk Herr Frick. He ends up jailing two US airmen who land in his small town. Not in a prison but in the cellar of his house where they are well looked after.

Captain Hank Wilson (Robert Redford) and Sergeant Lucky Finder (Mike Connors) try to escape without success. Unfortunately they end up staying for some years because Herr Frick does not tell them that the war is over and the allies won.

Shot in Germany, this is meant to be a satirical comedy but it does not hit the mark and is not always funny.

Maybe because it is a curious mixture of American, English and continental humour. Guinness treats it all as an Ealing comedy. Redford and Connors get to monkey around a bit.

The movie was adapted from a story by Robert Shaw. He would later appear with Redford in the Oscar winning The Sting.

Another film to be avoided by those currently being traumatised by lockdown. Or simply traumatised by lousy movies.

Even those who consider themselves knowledgeable about the cinema are unaware that Robert Redford ever made a film with Alec Guinness, and when they've seen this leaden travesty of Robert Shaw's 1960 novel 'The Hiding Place' they'll know why. Saddled with a noisy music score by Harold Byrns, director Gottfried Reinhardt seldom gets the tone right, the occasional bursts of slapstick being among the unfunniest things in it.

Poor Shaw's original story could have made a great film; but he must have watched this mess between his fingers. Alec Guinness hated both Munich and the film, writing that he couldn't "act comedy any more" and dismissing himself in the film as "a sort of lifeless doll impersonating myself in 'Lavender Hill' or 'Fr Brown'".

Austria ironically would have been a more apt setting, as there have been a couple of cases in recent years of maniacs keeping prisoners in their cellars; although their victims tend to be young girls (as in the same year's 'The Collector') rather than grown men.

The premise of the ironically titled Situation Hopeless - But Not Serious is a bit zany, and that's exactly what you'll get when you watch the entire movie. A meek, friendless German man, empowered by his Nazi uniform, captures two American parachuters and keeps them in his basement in hopes of gaining their friendship. They try to sweet-talk him into releasing them so they can get back to the war, but he's determined to keep them. He feeds them well, washes their clothes, gives them regular friendly conversation, lets them listen to music, and allows regular baths and shaves if they want. At Christmastime, he even brings them a little Christmas tree. However, the movie takes a very weird turn when the war ends and he doesn't want to release his 'friends'.

Why did I watch this obscure pseudo-comedy, you ask? It was Alec Guinness's time as Star of the Week, and I happened to get my hands on this very hard-to-find movie. Imagine my surprise to see the opening credits: the two American soldiers were Mike Connors and Robert Redford! This was only his second theatrical movie, but after five years of television, he must have been popular enough to get the "and" in the credits. Because of The Great Gatsby, I'm a forever fan of his. So, no matter how silly or boring the movie got (and it got very silly and very boring) I refused to turn it off. I did nod off a couple of times during the second half, but I'm sure even Robert Redford would forgive me. Unless you really love wacky movies from the 1960s, just watch The Great Gatsby again instead, and whatever is your favorite Alec Guinness movie.