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| Jean-Pierre Aumont |
In one of my favorite films, 1953's Stalag 17, the POW character Cookie wonders why there aren't more movies about war prisoners.
Stalag 17 was set in 1944, so Cookie and his fellow barracks mates would not yet have known about 1944's The Cross of Lorraine, a great POW film that was released by MGM.
Lorraine is an unusual American production in that it's about French prisoners and stars a great French actor in the lead role, Jean-Pierre Aumont, playing a bilingual solider who reluctantly serves as a translator.
Unlike Stalag 17, there is little comedy relief in Lorraine.
Based on factual accounts, it is set in a German prison camp not far from the French border. Some of the prisoners are killed by the Germans. Some are tortured. And some hope to escape the prison and join the French Resistance.
Gene Kelly and Hume Cronyn play French soldiers. Peter Lorre is a German officer.
It is well made film, and a great tribute to the French alliance.
The Cross of Lorraine aired on Turner Classic Movies a few weeks ago, and was recently reviewed here at the blog Silver Screenings.