The story of this film may be fiction, but bits and pieces of this story must surely have occurred over and over again during World War II, as countless refugees were displaced by the Nazi incursions and genocidal policies. This is a powerful, suspenseful and poignant film that also raises authentic questions about what constitutes moral behavior when many of one’s fellow human beings are in desperate need. When must one risk one’s own life to offer help? When, if ever, is it moral to stand to the side?

Historical Background: Leopold Lindtberg was born Leopold Lemberger on June 1st, 1902 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He tried his hand at stage acting beginning in 1924 before becoming a director in 1928. He moved to Switzerland soon after the Nazis came to power in Germany and changed his name to Lindtberg in 1934. His film style in the early forties presaged Italian neo-realism in both thematic content and style. Despite working under difficult constraints, with limited financial support and being somewhat ostracized as a foreigner in Switzerland, his films always featured interesting cinematography and a strong thematic focus. He was noted for tackling the most difficult and controversial themes, including Nazism, bigotry, divorce, insanity, and the Cold War. Besides directing, he worked as a screenwriter on films directed by others. Lindtberg was married in 1940 to pianist Valeska Martha Hirsch, with whom he produced two daughters, one of whom, Bettina Lindtberg, is an actress, appearing in The Swissmakers (1978). Throughout the 1940’s Lindtberg was no more than tolerated by the Swiss authorities and it was not until 1951 that he was finally able to obtain Swiss nationality, despite his pivotal role in advancing Swiss theater and cinema. His films won prizes at Festivals in Venice, Cannes, and Berlin.

The Last Chance was filmed in 1944/5 but the Swiss authorities withheld its releases until after the end of World War II, understandably fearing German reprisals had the film been shown earlier. It received one of the eleven Palme d’Or awards given out at the first Cannes Film Festival in 1946. He followed with four additional high quality films that received international releases: Madness Rules (1947), Swiss Tour (1950) (a.k.a. “Four Days Leave), Four in a Jeep (1951), and The Village (1953). Four in a Jeep took the top prize at the Vienna Film Festival in 1951. After directing The Village in 1953, Lindtberg became so disillusioned with his Swiss producer that he abandoned big screen cinema altogether and devoted himself thereafter to theater and television. His credits as a director include fifteen made-for-television movies from 1955-1977. Lindtberg died on April 18th, 1984 in Sils-Maria, Oberengadin, Switzerland.

The Story: It is the autumn of 1943 in northern Italy. The Allies have landed in Calabia in southern Italy, but northern Italy is still firmly in the grip of the Nazis. It has been just a few weeks since Pietro Badoglio had taken control of the Italian government with plans to turn Mussolini over to the Allies. In northern Italy, transport trains carry Allied prisoners to POW camps in Germany. Italian Resistance fighters attack German facilities when they are able, including the transport trains. An explosion on the tracks halts a train and during the ensuing chaos and firefight, a couple of Allied prisoners escape, hiding behind an embankment.

One of the escapees is a British lieutenant, John Halliday, a handsome dark-haired man who goes by “Johnny.” The other is an American sergeant, Jim Braddock, a light-haired man called “Jimmy.” The men are now free, but isolated in German controlled territory, too far from Allied lines to make their way south. Their only chance of freedom is to make their way north to Switzerland. The border between Italy and Switzerland is heavily guarded, however. Wending their way toward Switzerland, they come to a wide river that will have to be crossed. They momentarily split up in order to search for a boat to steal. Jimmy heads upstream and Johnny downstream. Johnny encounters the obligatory beautiful Italian woman, Tonina (Luisa Rossi), washing clothes in the stream and strikes up a conversation with her, partly to gain information and partly because he hasn’t seen a woman this lovely for many weeks. She warns him that the riverbanks are heavily guarded. Jimmy returns having successfully found a boat, though Johnny remains more pleased with what he found instead. At dusk, they make an attempt at a crossing, but are called back by Tonina, who has gathered better advice for them. Her uncle will give them civilian clothing and recommends that they cross over the Alps.

A Wagon Driver (Giuseppe Galeati) risks his own life to smuggle the two Allied soldiers through a German checkpoint in the back of his wagon filled with bags of wheat. He has to do some fast thinking to talk the Nazi guards out of searching his wagon. Johnny and Jimmy, now decked out in Italian peasant clothing, hop a freight train to reach the point closest to the Alpine pass. At one train stop, they observe Jews being herded onto a train for transport to a death camp. They watch one woman throw herself in front of the train to bring it to a halt, only to be dragged away. After jumping train, Johnny and Jimmy hike to the small village near the trailhead. Crossing the bridge into the village, they are stopped by Resistance fighters, but allowed to continue once their identity is established. They are not the only refugees trying to escape into Switzerland. In fact, they soon learn that the Catholic Priest (Romano Calò) is operating a virtual underground railroad to save as many souls as he can, regardless of their religion. Most of the refugees, understandably, are Jews, but some are Western Europeans. They encounter Frau Wittels (Therese Giehse), who is the same woman whom they saw earlier throw herself in front of the train. She is now traveling with only her teenage son Bernard (Robert Schwarz), her husband having been sent off to a death camp. There is an older man – Dutch Professor (Jean Martin) – who is carrying a manuscript with him that he has been working on for years and which he values as much as his life. There is a French woman, Mme. Monnier (Germaine Tournier) and a Polish man, Hillel (Maurice Sakhnowsky), traveling with his niece of about ten, Chanele (or Hannele)(Berthe Sakhnowsky). The Polish pair have walked from place to place for over two years and a thousand miles, trying to reach safety.

Johnny and Jimmy also meet another escaped Allied soldier, Major Telford (Ewart G. Morrison), of the British Grenadiers. His plan is to join the Resistance Fighters until such time as the Allies have advanced north far enough to make it practical to rejoin them. Johnny and Jimmy agree to this plan, but circumstances intervene. Among the villagers is the cowardly Innkeeper (Odeardo Mosini), who changes allegiances at the drop of a hat, whenever one side or the other gains the upper hand. He had recently seen the wisdom of supporting the Allies, but a radio announcement reporting that Mussolini has been freed by Nazi paratroopers and is in control of the government again changes his mind again. He sets off to tip the Nazis to the presence of refugees in the town and the Priest’s involvement. Gunfire is soon heard approaching the town. The Resistance Fighters are able to hold off the Germans for a short time, but the refugees have to get underway quickly, or be captured or killed. For the Jews, especially, it is certain death if they are caught.

The three Allied soldiers agree to escort the refugees to where the Italian guide resides, but, arriving there, they discover that the Germans have already been there and have killed all the men in that neighborhood. The three soldiers debate whether to abandon the refugees and go it alone or to take them with them over the snow-covered mountain trail. Johnny, who has the strongest moral conscience of the three, declares that he is going to stick with the refugees. The Major and Jimmy reluctantly agree. Adding to the group’s travails, they are asked to also take along five Italian children who have just been orphaned by the recent slaughter. They head off up the trail with the warning that stragglers will be left behind. In the distance they hear a volley of rifle fire – like an execution, which the soldiers understand was very likely The Priest’s martyrdom.

SPOILERS AHEAD THROUGHOUT THE REST OF “THE STORY” SECTION. SKIP TO “THEMES” TO AVOID!

The climb is a struggle. It is near blizzard conditions, though probably no worse than typical for high up in the Alps in late autumn. Uncle Hillel is the first to succumb to cold and exhaustion. He is ready to give up and fade away in the snow. He sends his niece ahead with the others but Johnny and Jimmy go back for him and haul him back to the group. About this time they spot a small shelter – a hut with firewood. The wind is howling so intently through the door that it takes two of the full-grown men to shut the door, once all are inside, and put the bar across.

They are able to start a fire and heat some soup up for nourishment. The grown men pass around a flask of whiskey. One of the men plays the melody of Frere Jacques and sings a couple of lines of his English language version of the song. One by one, each of these displaced souls begins chipping in, singing a verse in their own language – Dutch, Polish, and French. This is how it should be, says Frau Wittels, thanking the soldiers for taking charge and fending for the refugees. “You helped us because you are decent people – human.” They look out and see that the snowstorm has abated and they can push on to the gap.

Unfortunately, this momentary celebration of humanity is brought to a crashing halt as they spot a half-dozen armed German soldiers approaching from downhill. It is all they can do to put out the fire before the soldier can spot the smoke. Moving away from the windows, they silently wait while trying to keep the children silent and calm. The soldiers are now passing by, right outside the cabin. One of them suggests stopping but another says that they must follow orders and not stop until they reach the gap.

It is a momentary reprieve for the refugees and the Allied soldiers. Between them, they have only one handgun with five rounds – far too little firepower to challenge six well-armed German soldiers. The gap will be blocked off and there is no alternative way to reach Switzerland. The three Allied soldiers discuss their options, searching for a plan. The teenager, Bernard Wittels, joins the group and says he has an idea. He suggests that he will act as a decoy, drawing the Germans away. Since he speaks German, he says that he will talk sense with them, telling that how foolish it would be to kill innocent men, women, and children. Johnny and the Major thank him for his idea but scoff at the idea of reasoning with the German soldiers. It’s impractical. After Bernard returns to his mother, the men agree that a variation of Bernard’s idea is their best option. One of them will have to act as a decoy, using the handgun to draw the German soldiers away from the gap.

The group of refugees and Allied soldiers recommence their climb, soon approaching the gap. They spot four of the German soldiers on patrol, without having yet been seen themselves. Bernard, on his own initiative, races laterally from his group and soon gathers the attention of the German patrol. They take off after him, they on skis but Bernard with only his hiking boots. It is some distance, however, before they catch up with him. He very nearly reaches the top of the ridge, but is brought down by the German rifles.

The rest of the group uses Bernard’s distraction of the German patrol of race toward the gap. Once over the summit they will be in Swiss territory. It is all they can do to get Bernard’s shocked mother, Frau Wittels, to move forward, so distraught is she by her son’s brave sacrifice. The Dutch professor’s valise, containing the manuscript that he has carried such a great distance breaks open and his papers go flying, but he has to keep going or die. Chanele and her Uncle Hillel are furthest to the rear as the German patrol races back from where they shot Bernard. Uncle Hillel is shot and killed and Chanele refuses to leave his side. Johnny, already near the summit sees Chanele in jeopardy and races back for her. Picking her up, he charges back toward the crest. He is shot, but manages to stagger with Chanele to the peak. All but Bernard and Hillel have made it for now. Moments later, descending a few yards from the summit, they are met by a Swiss ski patrol.

They are escorted to the nearest border outpost. The Swiss Lieutenant (Leopold Biberti) in charge of the outpost wants very much to take them in as political refugees, but he has to await orders. Swiss policy at the time was not to accept Jews, maintaining that they were not political refugees. The Lieutenant points out that Switzerland cannot take in all of those who are seeking asylum there because they could not feed so many people. Nevertheless, by telephone, he manages to convince the authorities that he is dealing with an emergency and asks that they allow him discretion. When it is granted, the refugees are trucked down to the nearest hospital. Johnny, who is badly wounded, had refused to be sent ahead without the others. He passes in and out of consciousness as the truck races toward the hospital. We next see our group of wanderers standing solemnly as Johnny is buried. One final sequence shows our small band of refugees walking along a trail, but then the number swells and swells until it is an endless line of refugees – set to wandering through a Europe in conflagration.

Themes: The central theme of this film is moral choices. Lindtberg has given us very nearly a case study of a whole range of moral choices faced by people in Europe during World War II, mostly centering on the notion of what is required of us morally in helping those in desperate need. I would suggest that this film could serve as a very effective springboard for discussion of the morality of providing aid. Consider the following range of moral choices encountered in this film:

A. Clear Instances of Courageous Moral Choices:

A1. The Wagon Driver’s decision to risk his life to smuggle the soldiers through the German checkpoint.

A2. The Catholic Priest’s decision to operate the underground railway for refugees, feed and clothe them, and give them sanctuary in his church. His decision to do so regardless of the religious affiliations of the refugees. Johnny and Jimmy expressly told him they were not Catholics when they asked to hide in the church and he replied that it made no difference.

A3. The decision by Tonina to return to the river to provide the men with an alternative plan, rather than the almost certain death that waited for them trying to cross the river.

A4. The decision of Tonina’s uncle to provide them with civilian clothing, at risk to his own life.

A5. Bernard’s sacrifice of his own life to provide the decoy that allowed his mother and other companions to reach the safety of Switzerland.

A6. Johnny’s sacrifice of his life to save little Chanele.

B. Clear Instances of Defective or Cowardly Moral Choices:

B1. Obviously – the entire premise of the Nazi’s agenda of conquest, occupation of Italy, systematic extermination of the Jews, and the brutal reprisals against Italian civilians. That much is, of course, the central evil that creates all of the other moral choices of this film.

B2. The opportunistic Inn Keeper’s traitorous betrayal of The Priest and the refugees. This is a man who changes sides like a chameleon so as to best serve his own security and profit. We hear him boasting to his wife how well he has done by watching out for their own selfish interests. Later, it is he who the Germans send into the church to fetch The Priest. The German soldiers, being mostly “good” Catholics themselves, don’t want to violate the sanctity of the church, but one way or another, will execute The Priest for his work with the refugees. The Inn Keeper has the nerve to offer the excuse to The Priest that he hadn’t expected that The Priest would still be there.

C. Instances of Choices Posing at Least Some Moral Ambiguity: In any discussion of moral choices, these are the most interesting cases. Consider these choices that various characters in The Last Chance had to make.

C1. Johnny and Jimmy are hiding out in a freight car, unarmed and in great peril of being discovered. From the window of the car, they watch Jews being loaded onto a train for transport to a death camp. They watch families being separated and Frau Wittels literally throwing herself in front of the train in a desperate attempt to save her husband. They choose to do nothing. There was no conceivable action they could have taken that would have made any difference, but they could have sacrificed their freedom in order to provide a token protest against the blatantly evil activity of the Germans. Were they morally justified in doing nothing? Johnny and Jimmy later felt pangs of guilt when they had to tell Bernard that they had watched his father being taken away and had done nothing.

C2. Major Telford, Johnny and Jimmy have just discovered that the Italian guide has been killed. The refugees have no chance by themselves. The three soldiers debate whether to abandon the refugees and set out by themselves or to offer their help. Their chances of making it to Switzerland themselves will be better without the refugees, some of whom will be unable to travel as quickly as the soldiers could. The Major and Jimmy seem to be leaning toward abandoning the refugees but Johnny makes a firm decision to help them. The Major and Jimmy then agree. Would the three soldiers have been morally justified to abandon the refugees to increase their own survival chances? If not, was Johnny more moral than Jimmy and the Major? Is doing the right thing less moral if one first mulls over the possibility of a less moral choice? Does morality apply only to actions taken or also to actions contemplated?

C3. The Swiss Immigration Policy During World War II. The Swiss were highly ambivalent toward refugees during World War II. One issue was the possibility of being overwhelmed by the sheer number of refugees seeking asylum in Switzerland. The other issue was the risk of losing their precious neutral status and being overrun by Germany. The Swiss government feared especially that any protection of Jews would be seen by Hitler as provocation for attack. Lindtberg was keenly aware of the Swiss reluctance to accept refugees from personal experience. Was the policy of the Swiss immoral in whole or in part? Some individual Swiss officials and citizens violated the policies of their own government to help refugees. Were they acting morally or immorally?

C4. Putting Others at Risk from Sharing You Own Risk. The Priest urged Johnny and Jimmy to cross the street quickly and not to stay long at the Inn so as not to put others of the village at risk. Tonina’s uncle asked Johnny and Jimmy to wait outside while he gets clothes for them to minimize his own risk. Is it moral for people who are in great jeopardy of life to seek help from others if that help would be a threat to the life of the helpers? If not, is it immoral to seek help in a manner that produces risk for others that was greater than absolutely necessary? Does a person who is in great jeopardy still have a moral obligation to protect the interests of others in less jeopardy?

Production Values: No less an authority on suspense than Alfred Hitchcock said of this film, “Talk about suspense, this has it!” He wasn’t alone, however, in his praise for The Last Chance. Not only was it awarded a Golden Palm at Cannes, it also received a Golden Globe in 1947. What’s most outstanding about the film is that it combines high suspense with a credible life-and-death storyline, filmed under highly realistic conditions. This is as close as most of us are ever going to get personally to a life-on-the-line struggle to escape certain death at the hands of the Nazis.

The style of the photography is clearly that of realism and, like most contemporaneous examples of Italian neo-realism, this film is in black-and-white. Some scenes come across as almost documentary in appearance. There are also some lovely Alpine shots, though the tension is so high during these portions of the film that it is difficult to pay much attention to the scenery.

Considering the difficult circumstances under which this film was made – in the midst of World War II in the heart of Europe – it seems like grousing to complain about some roughness in the production. My only irritation with the film was a few of the performances. Ewart G. Morrison, an English actor who also appeared in The Search (1948), seemed very stiff and unnatural to me as Major Telford. On the other hand, I was very impressed with Therese Giehse as Frau Wittels. Her other credits include Lacombe, Lucien (1974). Little Berthe Sakhnowsky was marvelous as Chanele. Romano Calò was outstanding as The Priest. John Hoy and Ray Reagan as the two leads, Johnny and Jimmy respectively, were very good, but not extraordinary. I don’t see any other top-level films on their respective resumes. One very nice aspect of this film is that each actor speaks in his own native language. This serves to underscore the theme of finding commonality in humanity despite differences.

Bottom-Line: This is a film that I am very likely to watch again. It has solid entertainment value, combining suspense with life-and-death drama. Then, in addition, it poses a whole series of moral dilemmas for viewers to mull over. I think this film would make a great group discussion piece for an ethics class or religious forum. I highly recommend this outstanding Swiss film. The Last Chance is in multiple languages: Italian, English, Swiss, German, French, Dutch, Polish and possibly others. Subtitles are in English except there are no subtitles for English dialog. The running time is 105 minutes.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Switzerland:

Dangerous Moves
Journey of Hope
Messidor

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older