Set in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, a doctor who is part of the resistance manages to assassinate the "Reich Protector", aka the Nazi currently running the country. Who was nicknamed "The Hangman", so you know he was a friendly guy.
Dr. Svoboda's (Brian Donlevy) getaway driver got hauled away before they could, er, get away, so the doc fled on foot, and Mascha (Anna Lee) helped by sending the Gestapo the wrong way. Later, when he can't find a place to hide from patrols, he spends the evening with her family in their apartment. Where he claims to be an architect who met Mascha at an event, but then shows a surprising amount of medical knowledge.
Must be nice, going to college when it was cheap enough you could switch majors that casually.
The Nazis, as they like to do, gather up hundreds of citizens and stick them in a camp, promising to execute some each day until the assassin is handed over. This includes Mascha's father, a professor played by Walter Brennan.
There's really two key threads in this film, both revolving around the assassination, tied together by Gestapo Inspector Gruber. One is whether Svoboda should surrender himself, the other about a member of the underground who is actually working for the Gestapo, his point of contact being Gruber. In the latter, there's focus on a debate among the underground about what to do, growing suspicion of Mr. Czaka (Gene Lockhart), and his eventual exposure.
In the former, you have Svoboda struggling with guilt over innocent people dying because of him, and Mascha, torn between wanting to save her father and not wanting to help the Nazis. There's an element of peer pressure in both. A resistance member convinces Svoboda not to turn himself in, even after the doctor explains his intent to write a confession and then kill himself with the gun he used. At one point the resistance tries to redirect Mascha's carriage to convince her not to talk, and when she panics about being abducted and makes a scene, everyone on the street starts harassing her about why she wants to speak to the Gestapo if they haven't summoned her.
The film also checks in on Brennan and the other prisoners periodically, as they have their own debates about whether the assassin should give himself up to save them, or whether they'll agree to speak over the radio to the public. Of course, the Nazis have already prepared their speeches, which is the point the film really hammers again and again. Collaboration is a sucker bet. The Nazis will not honor the terms. They'll make promises, but once they have what they need, there's no reason to keep them. They aren't your friends, they won't protect you when the ax is about to fall, as Czaka finds out.
The last third of the movie is almost like a heist or con film, as many people band together to keep Svoboda's name clear, by pinning the assassination on Czaka. It's clever enough, and Lockhart really sells Czaka's bluster as a cover for how panicked he is as he realizes his fellow Czechoslovakians are turning against him, and the Nazis are only too willing to swallow the lie. Plus, it follows the theme of everyone being in this together, because the resistance manages to pull together "witnesses" to implicate Czaka where the Gestapo can find no links between them to suggest it's a frame-up. They managed to get everyone on board with this plan, in a short amount of time, leaving the traitor alone, with no one to speak for him but himself.
The movie blessedly avoids a romance subplot between Svoboda and Mascha, though they have to put on appearances a couple of times. That introduces an additional element of tension since Mascha is engaged, and it doesn't appear her fiance knows what's going on. When Gruber starts buddying up to him, there's real concern this is where everything will fall apart.Mascha is torn between fear for her father and anger at both the Nazis and Svoboda, with Lee depicting her as almost whipsawing between emotions at times, then scrambling to undo the damage one hasty decision made, with another hasty decision. Donlevy spends the entire movie walking like he's wearing cement boots, the guilt just weighing him down.
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