The 25th Hour (1967) User Reviews (48)

Little known impressive work

[JuguAbraham · 7/10 · 11 January 2002]

I caught up with this movie on TV after 30 years or more. Several aspects of the film stood out even when viewing it so many years after it was made.

The story by the little known C Virgil Georghiu is remarkable, almost resembling a Tolstoy-like story of a man buffeted by a cosmic scheme that he cannot comprehend. Compare this film with better-known contemporary works such as Spelberg's "Schindler's List" and you begin to realize the trauma of the World War II should be seen against the larger canvas of racism beyond the simplistic Nazi notion of Aryan vs Jews. This film touches on the Hungarians dislike for the Romanians, the Romanians dislike of the Russians and so on..even touching on the Jews' questionable relationships with their Christian Romanian friends, while under stress.

As I have not read the book, it is difficult to see how much has been changed by the director and screenplay writers. For instance, it is interesting to study the Romanian peasant's view of emigrating to USA with the view of making money only to return to Romania and invest his earnings there.

In my opinion, the character of Johann Moritz was probably one of the finest roles played by Anthony Quinn ranking alongside his work in "La Strada","Zorba the Greek" and "Barabbas".

The finest and most memorable sequence in the film is the final one with Anthony Quinn and Virna Lisi trying to smile. The father carrying a daughter born out his wife's rape by Russians is a story in itself but the director is able to show the reconciliation by a simple gesture--the act of carrying the child without slipping into melodramatic footage.

Today after the death of Princess Diana we often remark about the insensitive paparazzi. The final sequence is an indictment of the paparazzi and the insensitive media (director Verneuil also makes a similar comment during the court scene as the cameramen get ready to pounce on Moritz).

The interaction between Church and State was so beautifully summed up in the orthodox priest's laconic statement "I pray to God that He guides those who have power to use them well."

Some of the brief shots, such as those of a secretary of a minister doodling while listening to a petition--said so much in so little footage. The direction was so impressive that the editing takes a back seat.

Finally what struck me most was the exquisite rich texture of colors provided by the cameraman Andreas Winding--from the brilliant credit sequences to the end. I recalled that he was the cameraman of another favorite French film of mine called "Ramparts of Clay" directed by Jean-Louis Bertucelli. I have not seen such use of colors in a long while save for the David Lean epics.

There were flaws: I wish Virna Lisi's character was more fleshed out. I could never quite understand the Serge Reggiani character--the only intellectual in the entire film. The railroad station scene at the end seems to be lifted out of Sergio Leone westerns. Finally, the film was essentially built around a love story, that unfortunately takes a back seat.

To sum up this film impressed me in more departments than one. The story is relevant today as it was when it was made.

Heartbreaking Story of Wickedness, Naivety and Injustice in World War II

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 4 May 2015]

The naive Catholic Romanian peasant Johann Moritz (Anthony Quinn) is happily married with the gorgeous Suzanna Moritz (Virna Lisi). The local sergeant Dobresco (Grégoire Aslan) is a wolf and lusts Suzanna that rejects him. So he includes the name of Johann in the list of Jewishes in the village and he is sent to a forced labor camp for Jewish. Johann explains to the commander that he is not Jewish while Suzanna unsuccessfully seeks out authorities trying to fix the mistake, but she is forced to divorce from Johann to keep their house. Johann finally accepts to join a group of Jews to escape from the camp to Bulgary. However he is captured again and sent to a concentration camp. However, the SS commander believes there is a mistake since he has the profile of the perfect Arian and Johann joins the SS. After the end of the war, he is sent to a prisoner camp and judged in Nuremberg when he finally knows the fate of Suzanna.

"La vingt-cinquième heure", a.k.a. "The 25th Hour", is a great movie with a heartbreaking story of wickedness, naivety and injustice in World War II. This movie forces the viewer to understand the chaotic condition of Europe after this war in every aspect. Anthony Quinn has a wonderful performance and Virna Lisi is perfectly cast in the role of a beautiful peasant. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A 25ª Hora" ("The 25th Hour")

Enjoyable and interesting film upon a naive peasant during the Second World War

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 18 October 2004]

The movie deals with a love story rises above the tides of battle , as it concerns about a marriage (Anthony Quinn and Virna Lisi) and their children living in a Romanian village . Johann Moritz/Quinn is framed as Jewish by the constable (Gregorie Aslan) and he's punished to go to the concentration camps until he is deemed as Arian race and due to an error , he's drafted into the German army as a ¨SS¨ soldier . As the countryman is enlisted , but he fights against both sides in the war to get back to the woman who was in his dreams and always beyond his reach .

The picture is based on real events , thus the collaboration of Romania and Hungary Government with the Nazis , the encroachment of Romania by Stalin's Russian troops and other happenings . Anthony Quinn interpretation is satisfying although overblown , he plays with lots of gesticulation , Virna Lisi is more appropriated . Supporting cast is outstanding : Serge Reggniani , Robert Beatty , Marcel Dalio , Alexander Knox , Marius Goring and special mention to Gregorie Aslan as the nasty constable . Furthermore , the great Michael Redgrave , despite being billed fourth in the main titles he only has one scene. The runtime of the picture is approx. two hours , though is neither boring nor tiring but entertaining .

Henry Verneuil's direction is acceptable and the musical score by George Delerue is spellbound . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Andreas Winding . Flick will appeal to historical event enthusiasts and Second World War world buffs . Rating: 6,5/10 , well worth watching

A memorable experience

[Playitagainsam · 10/10 · 21 August 2004]

We don't know why this extraordinary film was never made available officially on DVD... Anthony Quinn's performance alone makes this a must-see. There are relatively few films in which an actor identifies so profoundly with his character, a phenomenon always unique for us, moviegoers.

But Quinn's powerful portrayal of an innocent Romanian, literally dragged out of his house and everyday life by forces he cannot comprehend, is only part of what makes this film great. The script is based on a book published in Paris by a Romanian priest who fled the Communist take-over of his country, and the film succeeds to go deep into a little known area of East-European history. Told as a succession of Kafka-esquire twists of fate, the misadventures of Johann Moritz (told openly and honestly, without any of the political correctness currently so precious in Hollywood) are in fact a eulogy for the lost innocence of the Romanian people... it is devilishly ironic that this eulogy is signed by a French director, working with the American money of an Italian producer, and overseeing a multinational cast fronted by an extraordinary Mexican-born thespian.

I've seen mentions of VCDs of this film in various Asian internet stores, and I was fortunate to take possession of a digital recording of this film, broadcast on the British version of TCM. But it's a shame that "The 25th Hour" isn't anywhere on the future DVD release map of MGM studios.

This film is timeless

[blueboot · 10 January 2004]

Unlike the majority of movies from the 1960's which date quickly - 'The 25th Hour' - is as fresh as if it had been made yesterday. It withstood being watched recently (late in 2003) and was as good, if not better, than any blockbuster films released that year. A seriously commendable tribute - thirty-six years on. Normally, Quinn is an actor that I find hard to watch, however, this role was tailor-made for him.

'The 25th Hour' is unlikely to ever find a large audience in the future, or be re-released. Such a pity. Anyone undertaking media studies now or in future years would surely find a wealth of cinematic technique and craftmanship contained in this epic story. One of the other reviewers, here on IMDb, has rightly classed this timeless film as "a forgotten gem". Spot on. It's refreshing to find an original slant on anything from WWII. This movie is totally unique. Well Done to all those involved in its making.

great depicting of east European life during the war

[aniaremere · 9/10 · 30 May 2005]

living in Romania, i was almost stunned by the very realistic setting for the scenes and the great care paid to local details by the director. The performance of Anthony Queen is absolutely great, and the rest of the cast does a great job supporting him. The movie does take a little knowledge of the east European context in order to be fully enjoyed, but it remains otherwise a great performance with some memorable lines. the ending is maybe a bit too melodramatic, but that's actually the way people are in this part of the world I believe the screenplay is great, because it presents the horrors of the 2nd WW in a most original manner - no blood, no battlefields. Still, lives are shattered, and the smiles you get every now and then throughout the movie are quickly killed by the war realities touching the characters.

an early different approach of presenting ww2 on screen

[dromasca · 7/10 · 8 June 2017]

It's only now that I had the occasion to see 'La vingt-cinquième heure' (The 25th Hour, or 'Ora 25' in Romanian) a film made exactly 50 years ago. In 1967, Anthony Quinn was at the peak of his acting career and popularity. Three years before he had brought to screen Alexis Zorba, the most memorable of his characters in Zorba the Greek. A year later he was going to be Leon Alastray in Guns for San Sebastian and another year after mayor Bombolini in The Secret of Santa Vittoria. The director was Henri Verneuil, also close to the peak of his career. The book that inspired the movie however had been published almost two decades earlier, in 1949, the same year that Orwell published his '1984'. The reference is not simply coincidental. While there is a gap of fame and maybe also of literary quality between the two books, 'Ora 25' written by a Romanian exiled named Constatin Virgil Gheorghiu, who was running away from the Communist regime that had taken over his country, and Orwell's masterpiece deal with the same theme - the absurdity of the fate of the single individuals crushed by the wheels of history.

While Orwell's '1984' was looking into the future, making the novel to belong to the genre of political futuristic dystopia, Gheorghiu's novel was set in the recent past and derived directly from his personal experience in the Second World War . There are some problems here, which people familiar with the biography of the writer and the history of Romania before and during WWII will recognize, but which will be lost to many other viewers of the film. The film starts in 1939, in a quasi-idyllic Romania, where peasants prosper, but racial laws against the Jews start to be implemented. This may be almost right, only the details in the movie are wrong. Deportation of Jews to work camps did not begin until 1941, when Romania entered the war as a ally of Germany. Germany did not occupy Romania in October 1940 as claimed in the movie. There were German troops in the country but that's different, they were allied to Romania. It was not king Carol, who started the deportations, and in October 1940 he was gone, having abdicated one month earlier, after Romania had lost parts of his territory to the USSR, Hungary and Bulgaria. The real responsibility of most of the Jewish persecutions and deportations was the regime of the fascist dictator Ion Antonescu, the one under which writer Virgil Gheorghiu served as a minor rank diplomat. There is a subtle but hard to accept deformation of history here, and a dose of self-dissolution in his own identification with the main character and with another supporting character, the anti-fascist writer (role played by Serge Reggiani) who in the film Writes a book with the same name.

All these historical details are important for the historical record, for Romanians and Jews who lived the period and their successors. Not that much maybe for the film itself. The story of the Romanian peasant denounced and deported as a Jew by the chief of the police in the village who had a look at his beautiful and virtuous wife (Virna Lisi) develops as a Kafka-esque story of injustice and struggle to survive in the Absurd universe of Europe devastated by war. Anthony Quinn, the eternal optimist and unbreakable human being from Zorba builds on another character of the same caliber. We must appreciate, however, the courageous approach of the authors of the script and especially of director Henri Verneuil who dared balance horror and humor in describing the saga of the wanderings of Johann / Yankele Moritz - successively confused as Jew, Romanian spy, Nazi - always On the losing side, always beaten but never lose hope. At the time when the WWII conflict was still described on screens on heroic style and manichaeistic terms, the authors of this film created an emotional and human story, and a character that anticipates by almost three decades those in the films of Radu Mihaileanu and Roberto Benigni about the Holocaust. After an initial quite conventional start, the viewer will now discover a movie with a catching story, deep meaning and wonderful acting.

One of the best anti-war films of all time !

[santasa99 · 10/10 · 15 March 2011]

One of the best anti-war films of all time !

Maybe this movie isn't a masterpiece, yet, there is no doubt its one of the best, if not the best, anti-war films of all times. Also Antony gave us one of his best, as well as Virna Lisi.

I sincerely recommends this anti-war satire in the best spirit of work of Henri Verneuil, the giant of the French cinema.

As one person said in his comment: "Get it. See it. You will remember it."

I couldn't agree more! For this is a timeless tale, told in a movie which after forty five years is still fresh and current.

Anthony Quinn shines

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 10 January 2022]

If the title isn't enough of a warning, The 25th Hour is a very heavy movie. Starring the fantastic Anthony Quinn as a Romanian peasant, this WWII movie will absolutely make you cry. He starts the movie happily married to Virna Lisi and working their little farm. When Virna rebuffs the advances of another man, he tries to get Tony out of the way. He writes Tony's name down on a list of Jewish residents and hands it over to the occupying Nazi soldiers. Despite his endless protestations that there was a mistake on the list and he's not Jewish, he gets sent to a concentration camp.

My greatest frustration with this movie is the unrealized potential. It could have showcased Anthony Quinn's great talent (which we all know he has) instead of hiding it. It felt as if director Henri Verneuil purposely tried to make his lead actor look bad. In the most emotional scene of the entire film, the camera cuts away from Tony, giving another actor, Michael Redgrave, a closeup for no reason. Had Tony been on the receiving end, he would have reduced the audience to a puddle of tears.

However, great actors know ways to get around their director. Just ask Alec Guinness, whose big monologue was filmed from behind his back in The Bridge on the River Kwai; he continually tilted his head so his face would be visible. Anthony Quinn earned a Hot Toasty Rag nomination for his performance in this film. Despite humor where it shouldn't have been and less camera footage than he deserved, Tony was still wonderful. If you like him in The Secret of Santa Vittoria or Wild Is the Wind, rent this one - but bring your Kleenexes.

A movie to remember

[awpkiller2 · 10/10 · 2 November 2004]

I have seen this movie maybe a 100 times, never grow tired of it.I saw this movie the first time when i was 7 years old, and it has left a mark in my memories since then. Its an enchanting love story that brings the sun out in most people, even in the darkest times. I think that this is a "must see" movie and one of Anthony Quinn's best performance. It has inspired me in a good way and I hope it will do the same will do others. If I could meet any actor from the past, I would definitely choose Anthony Quinn. There will never be a like of him on the silver screens.

A very haunting and unforgettable tale.

[rmarlborough · 10/10 · 7 September 2001]

I first saw this movie in Papua New Guinea in 1967 and have remembered it since, although I have never seen it since that first time.

Just how easily good people's lives can be destroyed by the pure evil that existed then and still does is a memory that will haunt me forever.

The movie is funny and immensely sad at the same time and the role played by Anthony quinn is superb.

This movie should be in all college studies about man's inhumanity to man.

Something of a disaster.

[MOscarbradley · 2/10 · 15 August 2018]

Like so many international co-productions HenriVerneuil's "The 25th Hour" is epic in scale but feeble in execution. A potentially good story about how Anthony Quinn's Romanian peasant finds himself, through some incredibly far-fetched circumstances, in the S.S. after the German invasion, falls very flat as its plot of almost Dickensian complexity gets lost on the widescreen and its cast of many nations struggles to put across its deeply mediocre script, (perhaps three script writers, including Britains Wolf Mankowitz, was two too many). Quinn himself is totally miscast but then so is everyone else. It has the feel of a poor man's "Dr Zhivago", (the film, not the book), so maybe what it really needed was a David Lean to carry it off. As it stands it is something of a disaster that thankfully isn't much seen today.

A Lasting Memory

[jleeo · 16 November 2002]

I saw this movie when I was 17 years old. I am 52. I am still haunted with this movie and think it might have been the movie that has impressed my life more than any other. I don't recall the quality of the acting or cinema work. I just remember the story and the way that Mr. Quinn played this part. Get it. See it. You will remember it.

the 25th hour

[nastasa · 10/10 · 29 December 2005]

This movie ... I saw it 15 years ago and in the last years couldn't remember it any more, name or anything else, just it was about a Romanian country man played superbly by Anthony Quinn. The impression I got from this drama will be eternal. Finally I found the name of the movie, I hope I will be able to buy it. And honestly this movie worth 10 Oscars. Ten times BRAVO. I was quite young when I first saw the movie. I asked my friends if they heard about this story but nobody would know anything about Anthony Quinn playing the role of a Romanian peasant. I remember when a German officer came and saw Anthony and told him he was a good "breed" but in fact the German was cheating on him. For few bucks you won't get rich in case you buy the movie but you will be rich if you have it.

One of the best potrayals of human survival I've ever seen!

[fwolf-1 · 9/10 · 24 March 2004]

There are many, many older movies that deserve to be transferred to the DVD format. This is surely one of them. An Anthony Quinn triumph! Scores of movies portray the victims of Nazi atrocities before and during the war, but, I don't think any of them have delved into the psyche of the victim and predator as well as this this one has. Anthony Quinn was truly a man for all seasons. He had the ability to portray the humblest of creatures devoid of any human vises to a creature of extreme animalism and pull it off as believable to the audiences who watched with no afterthought of what they had just witnessed! Truly one of our greatest artists. He is missed.

A Haunting Kafka-esque Tale And IMHO Anthony Quinn's BEST Role

[sweetweehee · 10/10 · 24 March 2011]

I was reading reports of the John Demjanjuk trial today and it immediately reminded me of this film. Like most others, I haven't seen this film in over 20 years and Quinn, who in my opinion gives his BEST performance ever, is luminous as Johann Moritz, a simple Romanian peasant, who is caught up as the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time throughout World War 2 and has absolutely no idea why. Yet, through the entire story, he never loses his essential goodness, compassion and humanity.

Spoilers Follow: Quinn plays Moritz as an easygoing Romanian peasant married to Verna Lisi who is coveted by the local police chief. Falsely denounced by the Chief as a Jew, he is shipped off to a concentration camp with the other Jews of his town. While an inmate with his friends in the Concentration camp, he is spotted by an SS officer from the Nazi Office of Racial Purity who questions him about his background and ancestry. As a result, he is pronounced of Pure Aryan blood by the SS, given a job in the SS guarding the same camp where he was formerly an inmate and publicized in the German propaganda of the day. He uses his new position to smuggle food to his friends and, ultimately, saves their lives by killing the other SS guards who want to execute them. Captured by the Russians, he is thrown into prison for three years until he is tried as a War Criminal only to be acquitted because of the testimony of the Jewish friends whose lives he saved.

Throughout the film, Moritz never loses his essential humanity and acts out of love and friendship to do the right thing. Quinn inhabits the role of Moritz and displays the gamut of emotions far beyond even La Strada or Zorba. Many have compared this film to "Schndler's List", but I think a more apt comparison would be to Agniezka Holland's "Europa, Europa" or Jiri Menzel's "I Served The King Of England" as similar stories. Henri Verneuil's direction captures the Romanian peasant society perfectly while illustrating that ethnic prejudice was not confined to Germans/Jewish alone. Verna Lisi's performance is among her finest and the rest of the supporting cast are equally well-done.

As a result of all this, I actually found New DVD copies of this film available on Amazon.com. I ordered a copy for myself and HIGHLY recommend it to everybody else. SEE THIS FILM. If you're like me and most other reviewers here it will, simultaneously, uplift your spirits and haunt you for years as it illustrates the fundamental absurdity of War and Hate.

One of those lost-classic movies that deserves to be seen more often! How about it, TCM?

[gilligan1965 · 8/10 · 29 August 2015]

This is one-of-all-too-many classic movies that should be shown on television at least once a year...once a decade, even!?!?

NO! Instead, great channels like TCM; AMC; and, many others, CONTINUOUSLY show the "SAME" movies over and over, again!?!? Where has variety gone?

I saw this movie...or, I'll say, "I was 'lucky enough' to 'catch' this movie back in 1991 when I just happened to find it on television. Since then...NOTHING!?!? Not even a mention of this great and lost Anthony Quinn classic! WHY?

This is really a great movie, but, due to 'whatever' or 'whomever,' it's an 'unknown' great movie!?!?

This movie is about the luckiest and unluckiest man on the planet at a time when Europe is swept-up into World War II. A man who seems to luck-out in many impossible ways, but, is only to be brought into many more unlucky situations!?!? This is a great movie to be seen by all!

Another Anthony Quinn Classic that is never shown on television is "The Secret of Santa Vittoria." I have, and, read the book, but, I haven't seen this movie since the 1970s!?!? If you even have the slightest chance of seeing this; or, if someone 'mistakenly' shows it on television...WATCH IT!

"The 25th Hour" is a great movie, and, I give it EIGHT STARS. :)

A film that will live in your memory for decades

[dan-filson-928-874987 · 10/10 · 27 March 2011]

It says something that other reviewers are recalling this film after 30 or more years. It's like that with me too. Goodness knows how long ago I saw this, but it has haunted me for years.

This film alone marks Anthony Quinn out as a truly great film actor. Never mind Zorba the Greek - all he did in that was be exuberant. Here his face carries complexities of suffering, confusion and other emotions.

In this film he plays the little man buffeted by forces not only beyond his control but beyond his imagination, an eternal victim, one of the flotsam and jetsam of war. Never mind the details, if this film makes you think, it will be about displaced persons, chaos, disruption of lives, and the triumph of the human spirit. I did not realise that Michael Redgrave was even in this film until reading the credits today - never mind who plays other parts, it is Quinn, the screenplay and the direction that win the Oscar for me.

maybe, only an experience

[Vincentiu · 26 February 2013]

after years, for me remains a revelation. about hidden Romania. about small history. about cruel form of solitude. more than beautiful, it is a touching film. a circle of ash. a testimony. in 1980 years, when I watch it first time, it was subject of extraordinary experience. the name of Virgil Gheorghiu was prohibit, the image of a Romania out of propaganda images was strange. but , after a time, more than story remains Anthony Quinn acting who gives new fresh colors to the message. because it is a picture of East. and body of a suffering without cure. open wound. and border of a delicate silhouette of hope. must see it ! because it is one of that films who gives a lot of surprises. a movie who transforms opinions and verdicts. and who draws , in special manner, basic elements of life.

A very good movie

[alv123 · 9/10 · 29 June 2006]

This is a finely crafted movie with moving sequences, humor, and best of all a love story. Anthony Quinn is wonderfully casted and after seeing several of his movies, this has to be categorized as one of his best performances, besides Zorba. The movie makes you really wonder if its filmed in Romania, which apparently is not the case. It is sure to fool even native Romanians, with its authentic-like landscape, costume, and ways of life. According to IMDb it is actually shot in France and Yugoslavia, hmmm. The story is compelling, making you want to watch the entire movie over, to see if you missed something. It provoked me into researching to find out if this is a truth based movie, but to my disappointment, it is a novel based film, seemingly fiction. It seems a bit far fetched to have happened for real, but one never knows.... The one problem with this film, is that it doesn't seem to cast any Romanian actors, and it is a film about a Romanian character. There are probably many Romanian fill-ins in the beginning, but maybe not, it is filmed elsewhere. The author of the book was Romanian, at least thats all fine and dandy - overall a masterpiece in cinematography.

A beautiful movie.

[marinaw-1 · 10/10 · 16 January 2008]

I was wrapped to see many other people also enjoyed this film. First watched it when I was in my early teens and then again several times late at night a few times after. Then sadly, no more. I'm now nearly 49 and so wish it could be made available on DVD. Why not? The best Anthony Quinn role, no one could have been more suited for the part or parts he plays - I've mentioned it to other film buffs of similar age and alas, no one I know recalls it. As the daughter of a generation that went through WWII and its aftermath (and myself deeply fascinated by what that generation endured) I guess this film at the time gave me a wonderful cinematic insight into some of the heartbreaking issues of the day. For classic final scenes this movie is a stand out.

a very special performance by Anthony Queen

[jaguedo01 · 9/10 · 14 December 2005]

It has past almost 25 years since I saw this movie. I would consider this film as an all time classic in a drama category. Anthony Queen gives one of the most wonderful performances ever. In a matter of minutes he takes you from laugh to tears. This movie represents a splendid picture of how humanity changed after the II World War. How a great part of that generation and the forthcoming lost its innocence. It has taken me long time to find this film by its name "the 25th hour". This type of films are not a moneymakers but they are for sure a treasure for some. I am very surprise why this movie is not used for the media in a broaden way in order for more people to enjoy this picture.

Think you're immune to Nazism?

[Razzbar · 9/10 · 27 February 2000]

I stumbled upon this movie whilst flipping channels on the teevee late one night. It has continued to hold my interest some twenty years later, because of the important real-life lesson it teaches us about the dark side of human nature. And although it tells a true story that takes place in WWII, it is amazingly apropos to the ugly things happening in Europe today.

If you thought "ethnic cleansing" as it's called today, has anything to do with race or ethnicity, you'll think differently after viewing this story.

I guess I'd been pretty naive in thinking that evil follows any prescribed set of rules. Evil is as evil does.

This movie teaches a valuable lesson, and I recommend it especially to e.g. church groups or civil rights organizations.

I don't expect it will be too easy to find and rent, but I'd really like to see it again, because there is one amazing scene in it which gives a totally unintentional yet interesting glimpse of the banal intricacies of "race expertise". In this scene, the protaganist, who was taken prisoner by the Nazis at the beginning of the war, is "discovered" by an SS race authority, and ushered into a room. There the two play a sort of guessing game, where the SS officer is able to determine where our hero (Anthony Quinn's character) came from -- and where his ancestors came from. Well "come to find out" that Quinn's character isn't a member of an "inferior" race after all, but to the contrary, he's a perfect, archtypical Aryan! Which doesn't mean a whole lot to Quinn's character, who is more interested in talking about the towns, rivers and mountain ranges that the SS guy had just been naming... Nevertheless, being a perfect Aryan archetype has its perks. Among other things, he gets to leave his job in a slave labor factory where he wears striped rags, and into a slave modeling job where he gets to wear tailored Nazi uniforms. Yeah, it's a better gig for sure for a guy who always did appreciate wearing nice clothes... until the Allied armies arrive, and recognize his face from magazine covers.

The Odyssey

[SnoopyStyle · 8/10 · 27 August 2018]

Johann Moritz (Anthony Quinn) is a Romanian Christian peasant as WWII breaks out. The police captain is lustful for his beautiful wife Suzanna. Johann is framed as being Jewish to the authorities and he joins other Jews in the forced labor camp. Both Johann and Suzanna struggle to correct the mistake. Johann joins an escape into Hungary but he can't continue the journey to America because he's not Jewish. As a non-Hungarian Christian, he gets sent to Germany as slave labor and two years later, he gets recruited into the SS for his Aryan looks as a darker complexion example. As the face of the SS, Johann is finally captured by the Americans after helping some prisoners to escape. He finds his friend Mr. Trajan in the camp. Trajan was supposed to write a book about the 25th Hour, the last hour of all.

This is a really interesting anti-racism anti-war satire. It's not jokey but it does have its light comedic touches. Mostly, it highlights the silliness of divisions among men. It is a Kafkaesque odyssey. Quinn is a great simple everyman as he struggle to adapt to ever changing circumstances. This is not a thriller nor a comedy. The drama is not really that intense. What it is is a portrait of the little guy in a chaos of a world in turmoil and the final scene really packs an emotional punch.

Affecting drama

[dbdumonteil · 13 December 2010]

It was the first time Henri Verneuil had tackled a super production with international stars (Quinn,Lisi) with a lot of his compatriots in small parts :Serge Reggiani as an intellectual who thinks we are living on borrowed time (it was 1939) and it was the 25th hour (hence the title of the novel and of the film) ;Françoise Rosay as a Jewish mama ;Jean Dessailly as a government man ....

In France,Henri Verneuil is generally adored by the audiences and despised by the critics ;but there's a welcome tendency to restore him to favor nowadays ;after all who among us wouldn't have preferred a good old Verneuil flick to Godard's intellectual chores? I had seen "La Vingt-Cinquième Heure" when it was theatrically released and when I saw it yesterday after all this time,I must admit it holds up quite well.

This is the story of the wrong man at the wrong place :the film begins with a baptism ,a very important scene since all that follows is the story of a man who is sent to a labor camp because a man who covets his wife says he is a Jew .This is a subject which Joseph Losey will resume with his own "Monsieur Klein" .But Verneuil's work has a more universal feel :in every place he is ,he is always the wrong man,not only as a Jew.For the Hungarian authorities ,he is expendable ,since he is a Romanian .For the Nazis,extreme derision,he represents the "supreme Aryan superman".For the Americans ,he was friends (unintentionally) with the Germans ,so he represents the enemy.

Although Verneuil is not considered an auteur in France (French critics obsession with the Cinema D'Auteur,one of the diktats of the Nouvelle Vague),there are several scenes great directors could envy: the christening celebration ,with a wonderful use of Georges Delerue 's score inspired by Eastern Europa folk music ;the baby crying as Hitler is bawling out his speech on the radio;the prisoners picking flowers to decorate the train;the death of Serge Reggiani who gives his glasses to the hero because he's seen enough men; the photographs which are taken in the railway station,a sequence I have never forgotten.

This is a good movie about a poor guy ,caught up in man's madness and living through trouble times who never understands why .On a train to a labor camp,he is happy "to be on a train" .