''Desperate Moment'' is a 1953 British

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

Compton Bennett Herbert William Compton Bennett (15 January 1900 – 11 August 1974), better known as Compton Bennett, was an England, English film director, writer and producer. He is perhaps best known for directing the 1945 film ''The Seventh Veil'' and the ...

and starring

Dirk Bogarde Sir Dirk Bogarde (born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde; 28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as ''Doctor in the House'' (1954) for the Rank Organ ...

Mai Zetterling Mai Elisabeth Zetterling (; 24 May 1925 – 17 March 1994) was a Swedish film director, novelist and actor. Early life Zetterling was born in Västerås, Sweden to a working class family. She started her career as an actor at the age of 17 at D ...

and

Philip Friend Philip Wyndham Friend (20 February 1915 in Horsham, Sussex – 1 September 1987 in Chiddingfold, Surrey) was a British film actor, film and television actor. Career Britain Friend went to Bradfield College where he became interested in acting ...

. It is based on the 1951 novel of the same title by Martha Albrand. It was made at

Pinewood Studios Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London. The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to te ...

and on location in Germany including scenes shot at

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Brandenburg Gate The Brandenburg Gate (german: Brandenburger Tor ) is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after restoring the Orangist power by suppressing the Dutch popular unrest. One ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Maurice Carter.

Plot

In the years immediately after World War II, a Dutchman, ex resistance, is sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder, committed during a robbery, that he confessed to but did not commit. After discovering that the girl he has loved since childhood is not dead, as he had been told, he escapes from prison and goes on the run through a devastated Germany in search of the witnesses who can clear him, with her help. But the witnesses begin to die apparently accidental deaths shortly before he finds them...

Cast

as Simon Van Halder *

as Anna DeBurg *

as Captain Bob Sawyer *

Albert Lieven Albert Lieven (born Albert Fritz Liévin; 22 June 1906 – 22 December 1971) was a German actor. Early life Lieven was born in Hohenstein, East Prussia (Olszynek, Poland). His father was the head physician of the Tuberculosis sanatorium H ...

as Paul Ravitch *

Fritz Wendhausen Fritz Wendhausen(7 August 1890, Wendhausen – 5 January 1962, Königstein im Taunus) was a German actor, screenwriter and film director. He is also credited as Frederick Wendhausen and F.R. Wendhausen. In 1938 he emigrated to Britain from Nazi ...

as Warder Goeter *

Carl Jaffe Carl Jaffe (21 March 1902 – 12 April 1974) was a German actor. Jaffe trained on the stage in his native Hamburg, Kassel and Wiesbaden before moving to Berlin, where his career began to develop. In 1933 Jaffe changed his stage name to Fran ...

as Becker *

Gerard Heinz Gerard Heinz (born Gerhard Hinze; 2 January 1904 – 20 November 1972) was a German actor. Heinz was born in Hamburg, Germany and later moved to Britain, where he changed his name. He appeared in almost 60 films (including '' Caravan''), and a ...

as German Prison Doctor *

André Mikhelson André Mikhelson was a Russian actor, in mostly British films. He was born in Moscow, in 1903. Selected filmography * ''The Gambler and the Lady'' (1952) - El Greco (uncredited) * ''Desperate Moment'' (1953) - Polizei Inspector * '' Star of My N ...

as Polizei Inspector * Harold Ayer as Captain Trevor Wood *

Walter Gotell Walter Jack Gotell (15 March 1924 – 5 May 1997) was a German actor, known for his role as General Gogol, head of the KGB, in the Roger Moore-era of the James Bond film series,Tom VallancObituary: Walter Gotell ''The Independent'', 20 June 19 ...

as Ravitch's Servant-Henchman * Friedrich Joloff as Valentin Vladek *

Simone Silva Simone may refer to: * Simone (given name), a feminine (or Italian masculine) given name of Hebrew origin * Simone (surname), an Italian surname Simone may also refer to: * ''Simone'' (1918 film), a French silent drama film * ''Simone'' (1926 fi ...

as Mink, Valentin's girl *

Ferdy Mayne Ferdy Mayne (or Ferdie Mayne) (born Ferdinand Philip Mayer-Horckel; 11 March 1916 – 30 January 1998) was a German-British stage and screen actor. Born in Mainz, he emigrated to the United Kingdom in the early 1930s to escape the Nazi regi ...

as Detective Laurence *

Walter Rilla Walter Rilla (22 August 1894 – 21 November 1980) was a German film actor of Jewish descent. Siegbert Salomon Prawer, ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910-1933'', Berghahn Books (2007), pg. 213 He appe ...

as Colonel Bertrand, Dutch consulate * Antonio Gallardo as Spanish Dancer *

Paul Hardtmuth Paul Hardtmuth (2 July 18885 January 1962) was a British actor. He made his film debut in Germany in 1917, and appeared in and co-wrote the film ''Um der Liebe Willen'' in 1920. He was born in 1888 in Berlin, and died on 5 January 1962 in Hamp ...

as Wharf Watchman *

Theodore Bikel Theodore Meir Bikel ( ; May 2, 1924 – July 21, 2015) was an Austrian-American actor, folk singer, musician, composer, unionist, and political activist. He appeared in films, including '' The African Queen'' (1951), ''Moulin Rouge'' (1952), ' ...

as Anton Meyer

Critical reception

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

wrote, "the sum and substance of this production...is a great deal of panting exercise within and all over two cities, offering little about which to care" whereas

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

found it "quite suspenseful, with Bogarde turning in an exceptionally fine performance."

References

External links

* 1953 films British thriller films Films directed by Compton Bennett 1950s thriller films Films set in Germany Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films shot in Berlin Films set in Berlin Films set in Munich Films set in Hamburg Films set in the 1940s British black-and-white films Films with screenplays by Patrick Kirwan Films based on German novels 1950s English-language films 1950s British films {{1950s-thriller-film-stub