La dernière chance

"The Last Chance" is a movie about escape and pursuit. It is about Italian villagers helping Jews and Allied POWs escape; and about the Allies helping the Jews as well. The setting for the film was 1943, and the place was northern Italy. This little known film was made in Switzerland and released in Zurich, on May 26, 1945 -- less than three weeks after the end of WWII in Europe. It opened later that year in New York City (Nov. 27), in Brussels (Dec.2), and in Paris (Dec. 19). It appeared in most other European countries in 1946 – but wasn't shown in Italy or Austria until 1947. It was distributed by MGM.

Most of the cast were unknown outside of Europe. The main supporting actors had much more movie experience than any of the three male leads who played the Allied soldiers fleeing the Nazis. Ewart Morris appeared in only one other movie, and John Hoy and Ray Reagan appeared only in this film. Even with their inexperience, the three leads were very good. Characters in the film speak four languages – Italian, English, German and French.

The quality of the film I have is very poor. The movie was obviously made on the cheap, but it is very well done and is an excellent story. Very little costuming or casting was needed of German soldiers. Instead, much of the filming was done of the escapees and villagers helping them. Excellent filming techniques were used. The use of key lighting with lots of shadows reminds one of the early styles used by Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford.

The movie most likely was filmed in Switzerland and part of Italy around Lake Maggiore. This 52,500-acre lake (23,870 hectares) straddles the border of Italy and Switzerland. It was a route frequently used by escaping POWs and downed Allied pilots. Other war movies have been made with escapes by way of Lake Maggiore. At the time of filming, director Leopold Lindtberg would have had no difficulty finding a burned or war- damaged Italian villages in the area. Many locals would be able to serve as extras for the townspeople in the film. These were people who had lived through such treachery and horror within just the past year or two. The film won the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946, and earned a Golden Globe in 1947.

"The Last Chance" is a very good war drama from WWII. At the start of the war, Italy was a fascist state and ally of Germany. But the people overthrew Benito Mussolini in 1943. And, throughout the war, Italians aided Jews fleeing the Nazis. They hid and helped American, British and other Allied downed pilots; and they helped escaping POWs. Thousands of Italians were killed by the Germans for aiding escaping Allied soldiers. No other nation during WWII did more to help those fleeing the Nazis. This is a fine movie about that time and effort.

I think that pretty sums up this film.

The other reviews say it very well. And to them, I say "ditto" to those reviews that praise this film. But you want something more specific, don't you? Fair enough.

It's a story of refuges trying to get away from the Nazis, and we begin with a British and American soldier for much of the film, as they make their way into a village. Later, they are joined by a British officer and civilian refuges.

Along with the other characters, we are treated to some very believable people, as three dimensional as you get, and the directing and camera work lets us follow the story, as well as the people and their emotions, in this odyssey.

There are heroics, but these are incredibly believable heroics, and we get the full "motivation" for everything that happens. The camaraderie of the times is beautiful, and is something missing in today's movies.

This is a "smart" movie. Not only do we get awesome intellectually stimulating ideas, drama, and story, but we also get awesome camera, directing, and action. This is well paced, certainly more fluid and active than 95% of the movies that have been made since 1965, if I am to pick a year in which a modern era begins.

Thumbs up. If you get a chance, this is a movie that will excite you on all levels, for all audiences.

The Last Chance - Swiss Film - 1945

I first watched this film on BBC Television when I was about 11 years old in 1962.

I remember thinking about how realistic it was, leaving nothing out of place as a good film production. On IMDB, I notice that no "goofs", anachronisms, or continuity flaws are listed. That is because there weren't any.

What inspired me about the films authenticity, was how the escaped prisoners of war overcame the language difficulty - one of the men had a working knowledge of the Italian language that he would have picked up as a prisoner of war.

Language problems are always something that more commercial War films often seem to short cut - as if the film audience is supposed to believe that everyone in Europe speaks English.

I searched for years to see if I could find any reference to this film and eventually found it in a copy of Leslie Halliwell's Film Goers Companion. The advent of the Internet allowed me to watch the film again on YouTube.

What is also quite unusual about the film is that the leading roles are played by actors who, themselves, had served in the Second World War, had been captured, and had escaped to Switzerland - very brave men.

It is also interesting that the supporting cast consisted of many well-known European actors and actresses. Performers such as Luisa Rossi and Therese Giehse were very famous at the time. The latter was once described as the greatest actress in Europe.

It is surprising that I have never seen the film shown again on the television since 1962.

The film has many poignant moments, which adds to the whole defined aura of the film.

The Last Chance neither glamorises, nor comes over as an anti-war film, but serves as a reverent tribute to the brave men and women who served in such a conflict where so many people suffered and died.

I give it 10 out of 10.

Director Leopold Lindtberg grew up in Austria in the early 20th century. As German fascism cast its shadow across Europe, Lindtberg emigrated to Switzerland where, after several years of controversial film-making during and after World War II, he was eventually naturalized.

The Last Chance is a work of historical fiction which draws its power from consistent plausibility made possible by its historic and geographic context. The story takes place mostly in the Italian and Swiss Alps late in Mussolini's rule. It follows two young POWs - one British and one American - who escape from a prisoner transport train in Northern Italy and hatch a scheme to hike across the mountains to neutral Switzerland.

The relationships these soldiers develop along the way - with those who help them, inform on them, shelter and clothe them, and particularly those who come to depend on them - show us a side of World War II which is not often well-explored in non-propaganda films of the era. Although The Last Chance is powerfully anti-war, it is by no means a propaganda film. Rather, it is a thoughtful work of social realism depicting the power and value of humanity to overcome its own tendencies toward collective insanity.

Filmed near the end of world war II under what must have been very challenging conditions, Lindtberg's few advantages must have been that it would be easy enough to find destroyed villages, burnt out buildings and talented actors willing to make a film celebrating the human spirit for little money. The exceptional realism of the sets, the effortless cinematography, and the talented international cast (very few of whom are known for any other films) make the film very easy to watch, and no suspension of disbelief is required as the script, story and action of the plot seem to fit right in place.

There are no recognizable stars in The Last Chance, but the casting is perfect and there are some very powerful performances. The two leads (John Hoy and Ray Reagan - neither of whom ever made another film) are very good, and most of the Italian cast members give noteworthy performances.

Praised as a masterpiece of suspense by none other than Alfred Hitchcock, The Last Chance is a war film which contains very little battle action, and a surprising amount of philosophical dialog. It may be one of the lowest-budget films to win both a Palme D'Or (1945) and Golden Globe (1947), and the courage of its director in making it when the outcome of the conflict it depicts was far from clear is mirrored in the courage of the protagonists. Lindtberg also drew from his own intimate experience with central Europe during the war to create the memorable characters and story line of this brave film, and it shows.

This is a wonderful movie. The copy I saw was not good, but that did not detract from the emotional and realistic story. It provides, as much as anything can, what seems to be a legitimate sense of the desperation that these refugees must have felt as they were driven from their homes by the war around them. Exceptional story in a raw but effective production.