Wonderful character development!

Perfectly adorable

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Two American soldiers stationed in Germany during World War II are captured by an odd German shopkeeper (Alec Guinness); he imprisons the two men in his basement and keeps them there long after the war is over. Strange, unhappy, insecure comedy-drama is extremely well-cast but is really too creepy to laugh at. As the soldiers, Michael Connors and Robert Redford have some good moments, but one can't help but feeling this is just an actors' exercise for both (they're green, but commendable). Alec Guinness is forced to walk a fine line in his characterization; it's imperative to the story that we don't hate the shopkeeper, and Guinness works hard at finding nuances in the man to keep him complex and interesting. If newcomers Connors and Redford are young actors just finding their way, then Guinness is in the Master's class. *1/2 from ****

Although most Americans have little knowledge of his work other than Star Wars, Alec Guinness produced an amazing body of work--particularly in the 1940s-1950s--ranging from dramas to quirky comedies. I particularly love his comedies, as they are so well-done and seem so natural and real on the screen--far different from the usual fare from Hollywood.This movie stars Robert Redford and Mike Connors as two aviators who are shot down over Germany during WW2. They are captured by civilian Guinness who doesn't have the heart to turn them in to the Nazis. So what does he do? That's right--creates his own jail and keeps them himself!! The problem is, Guinness is a lonely man and grows to like having these prisoners in his life. So much that when the war ends, he doesn't tell them and keeps them! Where this weird movie goes from there is something you'll just have to see for yourself. However, for some inexplicable reason, this movie has been panned by many. I'm not sure why, as I enjoyed it and admire it for its originality.

A lonely German civilian captures two American fliers in WW II and holds them prisoner in his basement. When the war is over, he can't bring himself to let them go so he continues to hold them prisoner and makes up stories he tells them about how the war would just keep going on and on and on...Such a good cast and a plot so terrible, it was shear torture to watch. I was so sure that with such a set of good leads it had to have been a good film; sadly I was wrong -- this was years before Schwarzenegger made RED SONJA. What made it worse was that it still made me want to know how it would turn out in the end. All it was, was scene after scene of Guinness telling his 2 guests stories about how Germany was winning the war. How Guinness and Redford got snagged into this disaster is beyond my comprehension.This film is a good example of why they created The Golden Raspberry Awards and this gets my nomination as worst of 1965.Too bad the vote scale here left out zero.

An American bomber goes down over Germany during WWII and two of its crew one officer and one sergeant find themselves as captives of a German civilian in his cellar. Alec Guinness, Robert Redford and Mike Connors star in this mid 60's comedy/drama caper. Guinness plays a somewhat milquetoast civilian who decides to hold the duo in his cellar. However once the war ends he fails to release them or alert the authorities opting instead to keep them informed the war is still going on by making up his own news on the conflict. The film lags at certain points but is still an entertaining off beat story.