Who payed the critics

One of my all time favorites.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Last night.I can only imagine from reading other reviews, that the full - length version has rather more substance. Nothing about Col.Kappler gave any indication that he was anything more than a typical Nazi thug. Well,he liked Puccini,but the film world is crowded with opera - loving Nazi officers. He would clearly have loved to have taken the Pope (Sir John Gielgud at his most unctuous and sanctimonious) and smacked him around in the S.S prison in Rome.The Pontiff appeared to be the sort of man who would wash his hands before going to the bathroom,whose nose was permanently beset by a bad smell. I must say I felt a twinge of sympathy for Kappler in this instance. Mr C.Plummer gave his Freeview version of Kappler no humanity until he is absolutely trumped by Mr T.P.Mckenna as Reichsfuhrer Himmler. Mr G.Peck is Monsignor O'Flaherty who is the thickness of a cigarette paper away from being a Stage Oirishman. However most of the time he holds himself in check and is still damnably handsome,although in a scene right at the end just before he is blessed by Sir John we can see that in fact that we are looking at an elderly man whose stunt double had certainly earned his corn. I suspect about half an hour has been cut from the original in order to fit in adverts for incontinence pads and O.A.P.s holidays. Despite that,the remnants of a good movie are visible. The scene in the Colliseum between Kappler and O'Flaherty is very tense with Mr Peck giving his one - man audience a Hellfire and Brimstone sermon and Mr Plummer rather movingly pleading with him to save his family as Rome falls. In the end of course there was no Battle of Rome any more than there was a Battle of Paris. A deal was struck ,the German Army withdrew and the Holy City was spared. The closing titles revealed the fate of both protagonists which would make seeking out a full version of "The Scarlet and The Black" rather pointless. I just wish I'd seen it back in 1983.

This TV movie is based on the true story of an Irish priest who while in the Vatican, helped Allied soldiers and Jewish people to hide and to safety in German occupied Rome. The story is exciting and stranger than fiction in parts as only a true story can be with disguises and assassination attempts. This is a fascinating non battle aspect of WWII showing the help the Vatican provided while trying to maintain neutrality.Gregory Peck adds a charm and presence to the role so you overlook he is a little old for the main character. Christopher Plummer who can act anything looks the part as the Nazi in charge. He has some cringe worthy bad dialog to deliver. John Gielgud is dignified as Pope Pius XII.The production is good with on location shooting and grand settings.This TV movie deserves to be as famous as a major motion picture WWII movie.

Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty was a priest and high-ranking official of the Vatican Curia who, along with an underground network he supervised, helped save the lives of thousands of refugees, Jews, and POW's from the Nazis when they occupied Rome from 1943-1944. O'Flaherty's heroism has been somewhat eclipsed, partly because history has shown much ambivalence and controversy towards the decisions of the Vatican's leader of the time, Pope Puis XII. Hugh O'Flaherty was one of the great heroes who fought against the Nazis, as important as any of the leaders of the Resistance in France. "The Scarlet and the Black" is a fitting portrayal and tribute to the man some called the "Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican". The film centers around how O'Flaherty undermined the Nazi occupation in Rome with deception, charisma, and even a little bit of wit, in order to save the lives of those labeled as enemies of the Reich.The film is outstanding primarily because of the two leads, Gregory Peck as O'Flaherty and Christopher Plummer as his nemesis, Colonel Herbert Kappler, who was charged with "maintaining order in the city", which included the deportation of Italian Jews to slave and death camps. (Apparently, Hitler included Italian Jews in his "final solution".) Both actors play their parts with enough subtlety and deftness that we never feel the movie is trying to make an overt propaganda statement. Instead, the filmmakers allowed the setting and actors tell their story without pushing a message, allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions, which is, in the end, a far more compelling statement. O'Flaherty is not entirely idealized, as he comes off stubborn, quick-tempered, and self-righteous. Being of Irish decent, he does not hesitate to express his anti-British sentiments. In a similar vein, Colonel Kappler is not completely vilified. Even Kappler is allowed a few moments of tenderness, although he is determined to carry out his orders at all costs. He does rationalize the crimes he commits as simply following the will of the Fuhrer. One of the most striking scenes involves Kappler meeting his high command and explaining why his control of Rome is not complete, which shows the complexity of the Nazi high command and the enormous pressures on high-ranking officers. His superior tells him that he must report directly to Hitler.The other aspect which should not be overlooked is the fine screenplay by David Butler, based on the book "The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican" by J.P. Gallagher. The film never lapses into cliché or over-the-top sentimentality, but rather opts for depicting the circumstances as true to history as much as can be expected from a feature film. The film also leaves ambiguous the "right or wrong" of the decisions made by Pope Pius XII. While some have criticized him for not denouncing the Nazis categorically during the war, he, before he became pope when he still a Cardinal, helped pen "Mit brennender Sorge" (1937), the first document by an international organization denouncing the Nazi regime. In the 1940's, Pope Pius and the Vatican embraced a policy of strict neutrality. Some in Poland felt betrayed by the Papacy while others felt it was necessary in order to save the church when Nazis imprisoned many thousands of the clergy, including monks and nuns.Overall, a thoroughly compelling World War II drama that tells a story of great heroism. Hopefully, this film helped to remind the public about other acts of great import that were done by those with no pretense to greatness. Some of these did what they did while wearing a priest's collar. As a footnote, the film imparts that when Colonel Kappler was a prisoner for war crimes after Rome's liberation from Nazi occupation, O'Flaherty visited him every month.

The film focuses on the dangerous situation faced by the Holy See in standing up to Nazi oppression. The Vatican, after all, has no military power and after the forcible confiscation of the Papal States by Italian nationalists during the pontificate of Pius IX near the close of the 19th century, he and at least two of his successors considered themselves as prisoners in the Vatican of the secular Italian state. Ignoring the warnings of the Popes against supranationalism in encyclicals like Non Abbiamo Biscogno and Mit Brenender Sorge, Italy and Germany persisted in pursuing social orders based on Fascism and Nazism. Yet despite the difficulties, many Catholics and religious like Msgr. Flaherty performed their Christian duties heroically by saving some of the persecuted Jews.John Gielgud makes a very convincing Pope Pius XII. Sir John aged very gracefully giving him that perpetual angelic half smile on that kind face. Contrast this to the fact that we remember him well as the blackguard Casca in Julius Caesar (with James Mason and Marlon Brando). As Pius XII, Gielgud portrays the late Pope as torn between his duty to ensure the safety of the Church and Catholics and the necessity of actively participating in rescuing the Jews of Europe lest that provoke the Nazis towards more brutalities. The recently released Actes et Documents du Saint Siege relatiffs a la Guerre Mondiale Seconde (Acts and Documents of the Holy See relative to WWII or ADSS) reveal that the Holy See saw a relation between increased persecution of both Jews and Catholics, especially the religious orders, every time Pius XII spoke against the Nazis. It also disclosed that Jewish leaders, both in and out of Nazi Germany, advised the Pope to speak and act more discreetly because of this. Gregory Peck is, as usual, dignified, likable and very convincing as a brave Catholic monsignor. An interesting political sidelight in the movie concerned Flaherty saving some British Tommies stranded behind enemy lines in Italy. One of them obviously not one fond of the Irish, upon hearing Flaherty's Celtic brogue exclaimed that he was Irish. Flaherty's response was to the effect, that he may not like what the British were doing in Ireland but it was still his Christian duty to help them. Remember, at the time Southern Ireland was still under British rule under very repressive conditions (cf. Leon Uris' book, Trinity). If you liked movies of this genre you should also see Portrait : A Man Whose Name was John which starred Raymond Burr as the Papal Nuncio in Turkey, Msgr. Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII who used his position and his chancery to save thousands of Jews escaping from Nazi-occupied Hungary. Other Hollywood films which treated the Church kindly if not sympathetically are: The Shoes of the Fisherman (Anthony Quinn) and The Cardinal (Tom Tryon).