Resisting Enemy Interrogation (film)

Infobox Film
name = Resisting Enemy Interrogation


caption =
director = Robert B. Sinclair
producer =
writer = Harold Medford
starring = Arthur Kennedy
Lloyd Nolan
Don Porter
Craig Stevens
Peter Van Eyck
Carl Esmond
music =
cinematography =
editing =
runtime = 62 min.
distributor = First Motion Picture Unit, U.S. Army Air Forces
International Historic Films (IHF) (VHS release)
released = 1944
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by = Target Unknown
website =
imdb_id = 0037215
amg_id =

"Resisting Enemy Interrogation" was a 1944 U.S. Army training film, directed by Robert B. Sinclair and written by Harold Medford, that was designed to train U.S. Army Air Forces crews to resist interrogation by the Germans.

The film, 62 minutes in length, received an Academy Award nomination for best feature-length documentary for the year 1944. It has been played recently on Turner Classic Movies. The cast includes Arthur Kennedy, Mel Tormé, Lloyd Nolan, Craig Stevens and Peter Van Eyck.

Sinclair was a captain in the U.S. Army Air Forces when the movie was made.

Plot

The movie centers around efforts by German intelligence to find the target of an upcoming raid by the mythical "B-99 bomber." To achieve this end, they interrogate a recently shot-down air crew.

The German officers use various methods to discover this information, some of them quite subtle. Though no physical brutality is used, the Germans at one point stage a mock execution. Each airman eventually provides useful information because of their own stupidity or naivete. Some of what they say, which the enemy finds useful, seems innocuous but is used by the Germans as pieces of a larger puzzle.

In the end, the Germans are able to find the target of the raid and there are heavy casualties. The message of the movie, delivered by an intelligence officer played by Lloyd Nolan, is to not talk under any circumstances, that even innocuous conversation can help the enemy, not to let down one's guard, and to not try to outwit the enemy.

Remake

In 1950, the film story was purchased from Medford to be made in a Universal-International motion picture with a working title of "Prisoner of War." The film, entitled "Target Unknown," was released by Universal in 1951 with a screenplay by Medford. It was directed by George Sherman with a cast led by Mark Stevens.

References

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037215/ Internet Movie Database entry]
* [http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=18421 Article in Washington City Paper]
* "Hollywood Dossier," The New York Times, April 30, 1950
* "Retired Director is Slain on Coast," (UPI dispatch),The New York Times, Jan. 5, 1970