Fritz Bauer Institut · Cinematography of the Holocaust
ID |
FBW000014 Fiction |
Country / Year |
USA, 1940 |
Original Title |
Escape |
Other Title(s) |
When the Door Opened |
Directed by |
|
Produced by |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) (Loew's, Inc.), Culver City, CA (New York, NY) |
Staff |
Producer: Lawrence Weingarten, Mervyn LeRoy; Director, var: George Cukor (Additional scenes); Assistent director: Al Shenberg; Script: Archer Oboler, Marguerite Roberts; Based on: Ethel Vance (gleichn. Roman); Camera: Robert H. Planck; Editing: George Boemler; Sound recording: Douglas Shearer; Art direction: Cedric Gibbons, Uri McCleary (Associate Art Director); Technical consultant: Paul Huldschinsky, Henri S. Noerdlinger (Technical expert); Set decoration: Edwin B. Willis, Jack D. Moore; Costumes: Adrian (=Adrian Adolph Greenberg), Gile Steele (For Men); Makeup: Jack Dawn; Haidressing: Sydney Guilaroff (For Norma Shearer); Music: Frank Waxman; Musiv, var: Daniele Amfitheatrof (Original music, uncredited), Constantin Bakaleinikoff (Original music, uncredited), Eugene Zador (Original music, uncredited) |
Cast |
Norma Shearer (Countess von Treck); Robert Taylor (Mark Preysing); Conrad Veidt (General Kurt von Kolb); Alla Nazimova (Emmy Ritter); Felix Bressart (Fritz Kellert); Philip Dorn (Dr. Berthold Ditten); Albert Bassermann (Dr. Arthur Henning); Bonita Grandville (Ursula, a Student); Edgar Barrier (Commissioner); Elsa Bassermann (Frau Henning); Blanche Yurka (Concentration Camp Nurse-Matron); Lisa Golm (Anna, Emmy's cellmate); Erwin Kalser (Hotel Barkeeper); Edit Angold (Hilda, Ditten's Housekeeper); Ernst Deutsch (Baron von Reiber); Christina Montez (Suzanne); Lotte Palfi (Julie, Maid); Gretl Dupont (Hilda Keller); Albert De Arno (Elevator Operator); Helmut Dantine (Porter); Fred Giermann (Porter); William Edmunds (White Swan Inn Waiter); Walter Bonn (Concentration Camp Guard); Arno Frey (Concentration Camp Commandant); Adolph Milar (Salesman); Edward Faust (Beer Garden Proprietor); Kay Deslys (Beer Garden Waitress); Fred Wolff (Waiter); Howard Lang (Senior Camp Doctor); Gerta Rozen (Student); Anya Taranda (Student); McKinney Florine (Student); Ann Sheldon (Helene, a Student); Janet Shaw (Greta, a Student); Marianne Mosner (Maria, a Student); Maria Ray (Baroness von Reiber); Hans Schumm (Gestapo Officer With Dark Eyebrows); Henry Victor (Gestapo Officer With Hooked Nose); Frederick Vogeding (First Passport Official); Hans Joby (Second Passport Official); Henry Rowland (Hotel Bellboy); Marek Windheim (Hotel Desk Clerk); William Yetter, Sr. (Heinrich); Wolfgang Zilzer (Pavillion Counter Clerk); Thomas Monk (Priest's Asst., scenes deleted); Winter Hall (Priest, scenes deleted) |
Length |
2849 m / 104' |
Format |
35mm/sw/1:1,37 |
Dates |
- 31 Oct 1940: Premiere, New York, NY (Radio City Music Hall) |
Further Remarks |
- Tonsystem: Western Electric |
Abstract |
Mark Preysing comes from America to Germany to visit his mother Emmy Ritter, a once-famous stage actress who had returned to the Germany to sell her late husband's estate. He befriends the Countess von Treck, a German-American who runs a girl's finishing school and who is having an affair with General Kurt von Kolb, a German general prone to dizzy spells. Preysing learns that his mother is in a concentration camp, condemned to death for the capital crime of attempting to smuggle money out of the country. The Countess finds herself falling in love with Preysing and decides to help him, introducing him to Dr. Ditten, the anti-Nazi doctor in the concentration camp where Preysing's mother resides. Dr. Ditten gives the mother a drug that induces a death-like state, and her body is released to Preysing. As mother and son near the border, a snowstorm cuts off their escape, so Preysing takes the comatose his mother to the Countess' remote mountain estate. The Countess is moved by their plight and deceives von Kolb who arrives moments after Preysing and his mother get aboard a plane. He learns of the plan and tries to warn officials but is struck down by another spell, and the Countess makes certain that the plane can start. |
Subject Terms |
Anti-Nazi films (US); Germany (1933-1945); Concentration camps; USA |
Holdings |
- Kinemathek Hamburg, Hamburg; 16mm |
Bibliography |
- Vance, Ethel: Escape. Boston: Little Brown, 1939 |