In the tropic of the cross

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Movie
German title In the tropic of the cross
Original title The Scarlet and the Black
Country of production United Kingdom ,
United States
original language English
Publishing year 1983
length 138 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Jerry London
script David Butler
production Bill McCutchen,
Howard Alston,
Alfio Sugaroni
music Ennio Morricone
camera Giuseppe Rotunno
cut Benjamin A. Weissman
occupation

Tropic of the Cross is a 1983 British-American television film whose plot is based on historical facts. The thriller was based on the book Der Monsignore und der Standartenführer (original title: Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican ) by JP Gallagher . The film was released again on DVD in 2012 under the title The Priest and the Standartenführer .

action

Second World War 1943: Fascist Italy capitulated to the Allies. German troops occupy the country. The capital Rome and the Vatican City are the focus of world history.

As in all areas occupied by the German Wehrmacht , persecutions also occur in Italy. The Gestapo and the SS are primarily targeting Allied soldiers, Jews and resistance fighters . The diabolical machinery of merciless persecution is now beginning in Italy too.

In the shadow of this inhumanity, resistance is forming . A group of priests and lay people, including the British diplomat Sir D'Arcy Osborne , is formed from the ranks of the Vatican to try to help these people. The group around the Irish priest Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty quickly made a name for themselves by organizing accommodation, meals and forged papers . This in turn puts the Gestapo on the trail of the group, which is now increasingly being suspected by the occupiers.

Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler , head of the Gestapo in Rome, takes this fight very personally. A deep enmity arises between him and O'Flaherty. The monsignor only has the protection of the Vatican. He is always in danger of being arrested by the Gestapo. Kappler does not even shrink from a murder plot to smash the priest and his organization. However, the Vatican City will soon be too small for hundreds of persecuted people.

In order to continue providing the aid, the members of the organization must operate outside the Vatican. O'Flaherty uses different disguises: He leaves the Vatican disguised as a merchant of devotional items, as a transport worker or even as a nun. After the Allied landing in Italy on the coast of Anzio , it is only a matter of time when Rome will be liberated, but until then both sides will have an unequal battle.

background

The film is based on real events that happened during the German occupation in Italy. This is about the great moral question of good and bad, the black and white of a criminal, fascist culture.

Awards

The film received three Emmy nominations in 1983 and was able to win one of the coveted film awards with the sound editing award.

criticism

“Though factual, the film belittles its theme by dramatizing it like a western. The result is a banal politician. "

literature

  • JP Gallagher : The Monsignore and the Standartenführer (original title: Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican ). German by Margreth Kees . Verlag Styria, Graz, Vienna and Cologne 1968, 229 pp.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. In the tropic of the cross. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 1, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used