Hostages (1943 film) explained

Hostages
Director:Frank Tuttle
Producer:Sol C. Siegel
Screenplay:Frank Butler
Lester Cole[1]
Starring:Luise Rainer
Arturo de Córdova
William Bendix
Paul Lukas
Editing:Archie Marshek
Cinematography:Victor Milner
Music:Victor Young
Studio:Paramount Pictures
Distributor:Paramount Pictures
Runtime:88 minutes
Country:United States
Language:English

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

Notes and References

  1. Book: Reynold Humphries. Hollywood's Blacklists: A Political and Cultural History. 2013-08-04. 2008. Edinburgh University Press. 978-0-7486-2455-3. 54–. Lester Cole, also one of the Ten, wrote two scripts dealing with war subjects: Hostages (1943) and None Shall Escape (1944)..
  2. http://www.allmovie.com/movie/hostages-v95638 "Overview"
  3. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/78410/Hostages/notes.html "Notes"