''No Way Back'' (german: Weg ohne Umkehr) is a 1953 West German

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Victor Vicas Victor Vicas (25 March 1918 – 9 December 1985) was a Russian-born French film director and screenwriter. His film ''The Wayward Bus'' was entered into the 7th Berlin International Film Festival. Between 1974 and 1983 he directed all thirty ...

and starring

Ivan Desny Ivan Desny (born Ivan Nikolaevich Desnitskij; 28 December 1922 – 13 April 2002) was a Chinese-born actor of Russian descent. Early life Desny was born in Peking, China. Career Desny was a film actor. Bilingual in French and German, he acted ...

Ruth Niehaus Ruth Hildegard Rosemarie Niehaus (1925–1994) was a German stage and film actress. She was married to Jewish German spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intellige ...

and

René Deltgen Renatus Heinrich Deltgen born 30 April 1909 in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg; died 29 January 1979 in Cologne, West Germany) was a Luxembourgian stage and film actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance ...

.Bock & Bergfelder p. 82 It was made at the height of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. In 1945 following the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula– ...

, a

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

officer is able to protect a young German woman he finds living in a cellar. Several years later he returns to the city as a civilian, finds her again and makes plans to flee from

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

under the noses of the

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

Cast

as Michael Zorin aka Mischa *

as Anna Brückner *

as Major Kazanow * Karl John as Friedrich Schultz *

Lila Kedrova Yelizaveta Nikolaevna Kedrova (Russian: Елизавета Николаевна Кедрова; 9 October 1909 – 16 February 2000), known as Lila Kedrova, was a Russian-born French actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actre ...

as Ljuba * Serge Beloussow as Litvinski *

Leonid Pylajew Leonid (russian: Леонид ; uk, Леонід ; be, Леанід, Ljeaníd ) is a Slavic version of the given name Leonidas. The French version is Leonide. People with the name include: *Leonid Andreyev (1871–1919), Russian playwright an ...

as Wassilij *

Alf Marholm Alf Marholm (1918–2006) was a German actor. Partial filmography * ''Turtledove General Delivery'' (1952) - Benno Perlitz, Zeichner * '' No Way Back'' (1953) - Direktor Berger * ''Die goldene Pest'' (1954) * ''Viele kamen vorbei'' (1956) - Kre ...

as Direktor Berger *

Erika Dannhoff Erika Dannhoff (2 December 1909 – 18 June 1996) was a German actress. She played the female lead in the 1935 mountain film ''Demon of the Himalayas''. Selected filmography * ''The Model from Montparnasse'' (1929) * ''The Man with the Frog'' (1 ...

John Haggerty John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

as Steve McCullough *

Wolfgang Neuss Wolfgang Neuss (3 December 1923 – 5 May 1989) was a German actor and Kabarett artist. Beginning in the mid-1960s, he also became famous for his political engagement, first for the SPD, then for the extra-parliamentary opposition, ''APO''. H ...

as Comedian * Herbert von Boxberger * Bogislav von Heyden * Reinhard Kolldeh

References

Bibliography

* Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. ''The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema''. Berghahn Books, 2009.

External links

* 1953 films 1953 drama films German drama films West German films 1950s German-language films Films directed by Victor Vicas Films set in Berlin Films set in 1945 Cold War films German black-and-white films 1950s German films {{1950s-Germany-film-stub