Desperate Moment
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Patrick Kirwan
| Desperate Moment | |
|---|---|
![](#/media/File:"Desperate_Moment"_(1953).jpg) 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 companies | |
| Distributed by | General Film Distributors (UK) Universal Pictures (US) |
Release dates |
|
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.[1][2] It was written by George H. Brown and Patrick Kirwan based on the 1951 novel of the same title by Martha Albrand.
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
Producer George H. Brown bought the film rights to the novel in 1951 and promised the lead role to Dirk Bogarde. Bogarde had prior commitments so Brown delayed filming for a year until the actor could play the part. Brown called the love scenes "the most tender I have read for a long time."[3]
The film was made through British Film-Makers, a short lived production scheme that operated in Britain in the early 1950s as a co operative venture between the Rank Organisation and the National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC), whereby Rank would provide 70% of finance and the rest came from the NFFC.[4][5]
Dirk Bogarde's biographer called the film one of Bogarde's "seemingly unending supply of men-on-the-run " movies that followed his success in The Blue Lamp, others including Blackmailed, Hunted and The Gentle Gunman.[6]
Filming started in September 1952.[7] 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.