Hostages (1943 film)

Hostages
theatrical poster
Directed byFrank Tuttle
Screenplay byFrank Butler
Lester Cole[1]
Based onHostages
1942 novel
by Stefan Heym
Produced bySol C. Siegel
StarringLuise Rainer
Arturo de Córdova
William Bendix
Paul Lukas
CinematographyVictor Milner
Edited byArchie Marshek
Music byVictor Young
Production
company
Paramount Pictures
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
  • August 12, 1943 (1943-08-12) (United States)
  • October 11, 1943 (1943-10-11) (New York City)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Hostages is an American war film produced by Paramount Pictures and released in 1943. It was directed by Frank Tuttle from a script by Frank Butler and Lester Cole based on the 1942 novel of the same name by Stefan Heym. The film stars Luise Rainer, Arturo de Córdova, William Bendix and Paul Lukas and features Katina Paxinou and Oskar Homolka.

Plot

A group of 26 Czechoslovakian citizens are jailed as hostages by the Gestapo until the supposed killer of a Nazi officer – who actually committed suicide – is turned in. The hostages include the leader of the underground resistance movement (William Bendix), whose cover is that of an apparently ignorant washroom attendant in the nightclub where the victim was last seen alive.

Cast

Production

Hostages utilized footage of Prague which was originally shot six years before for the film Bluebeard's Eighth Wife. Erich von Stroheim was originally scheduled to play the part of "Rheinhardt", but had to withdraw in order to film Paramount's Five Graves to Cairo.[3]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Reynold Humphries (2008). Hollywood's Blacklists: A Political and Cultural History. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 54–. ISBN 978-0-7486-2455-3. Retrieved 2013-08-04. Lester Cole, also one of the Ten, wrote two scripts dealing with war subjects: Hostages (1943) and None Shall Escape (1944).
  2. ^ "Overview" on Allmovie.com
  3. ^ "Notes" on TCM.com