Desperate Moment

Desperate Moment
British quad poster
Directed by	Compton Bennett
Written by	George H. Brown Patrick Kirwan
Based on	Desperate Moment by Martha Albrand
Produced by	George H. Brown
Starring	Dirk Bogarde Mai Zetterling Philip Friend
Cinematography	C.M. Pennington-Richards
Edited by	John D. Guthridge
Music by	Ronald Binge
Production company	George H. Brown Productions (as Fanfare)
Distributed by	General Film Distributors (Uk)
Release dates	17 March 1953 (1953-03-17) (London, UK)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Desperate Moment is a 1953 British thriller film directed by Compton Bennett and starring Dirk Bogarde, Mai Zetterling and Philip Friend. It was written by George H. Brown and Patrick Kirwan based on the 1951 novel of the same title by Martha Albrand.

Plot

In the years immediately after World War II, a Dutchman, ex resistance, is sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder, committed during a robbery, that he confessed to but did not commit. After discovering that the girl he has loved since childhood is not dead, as he had been told, he escapes from prison and goes on the run through a devastated Germany in search of the witnesses who can clear him, with her help. But the witnesses begin to die apparently accidental deaths shortly before he finds them...

Cast

• Dirk Bogarde as Simon Van Halder
• Mai Zetterling as Anna DeBurg
• Philip Friend as Captain Bob Sawyer
• Albert Lieven as Paul Ravitch
• Fritz Wendhausen as Warder Goeter
• Carl Jaffe as Becker
• Gerard Heinz as German prison doctor
• André Mikhelson as Polizei Inspector
• Harold Ayer as Captain Trevor Wood
• Walter Gotell as Ravitch's Servant-Henchman
• Friedrich Joloff as Valentin Vladek
• Simone Silva as Mink, Valentin's girl
• Ferdy Mayne as Detective Laurence
• Walter Rilla as Colonel Bertrand, Dutch consulate
• Antonio Gallardo as Spanish dancer
• Paul Hardtmuth as wharf watchman
• Theodore Bikel as Anton Meyer

Production

It was made at Pinewood Studios and on location in West Germany including scenes shot at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. The film's sets were designed by the art director Maurice Carter.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "It is impossible to say anything good of this rigmarole, with its improbably contrived story, its flat dialogue and direction, its lachrymose performance by Mai Zetterling and characteristically bedraggled and hunted appearance by Dirk Bogarde. All the villains are old-fashioned stock characters, and nothing seems to bear any relation to life as it exists."

The New York Times wrote, "the sum and substance of this production...is a great deal of panting exercise within and all over two cities, offering little about which to care."

TV Guide found it "quite suspenseful, with Bogarde turning in an exceptionally fine performance."

In The Radio Times Guide to Films Tony Sloman gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "This was one of several films in which handsome young Dirk Bogarde played a fugitive on the run, prior to consolidating his popularity and stardom with the following year's Doctor in the House. The meaningless title conceals a ludicrous plot in which Bogarde, believing girlfriend Mai Zetterling is dead, confesses to a murder he did not commit. When he discovers she is still alive, they go off to catch the real villain. The stars make it entertaining enough."

Leslie Halliwell wrote "Cliché-ridden melodrama climaxing in a car chase; poor in all departments."

External links

• Desperate Moment at IMDb