Serial Number: 20858
Title: Last Chance, The (1945)
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Country of Origin: US
Genre: Private Gallery - The 40's
Subject:
Size: 14x22 WC
Condition: VG
Card Number: N/A
Price: $NOT FOR SALE
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| Actors/Actresses: Luisa Rossi, John Hoy |
| Notes: Director: Leopold Lindtberg; Country of origin: Switzerland; Original title: Die letzte Chance; Production of this Jewish-themed film was no simple matter, and difficulties surrounding it cannot be overstated. We must bear in mind that in August 1942 the Swiss Federal Councillor, Eduard von Steiger, declared that controversial policy of “the boat is full”, and thus Switzerland closed its borders. From then on, only “political” refugees were admitted. A directive from Heinrich Rothmund, head of the Police section of the Federal Department of Justice and Police, put a finer point to this matter, specifying that “those who have fled solely due to their race – Jews, for example – should not be considered political refugees”. It will become clear then that a proposed film that raises the issue of refugees and questions the Swiss asylum policy, while the war still rages on, was not welcome at all. The production company, Praesens Film, immediately encountered numerous difficulties with the federal government, which was not really in favour of a work potentially critical of its position. Its connections with the filmmakers – producer Lazar Wechsler, a Polish Jew, director Leopold Lindtberg, a Viennese Jew and a refugee himself, and screenwriter Richard Schweizer in particular – made them even further ostracized and considered to be a “den of refugees” with communist connections. The government regarded the project with utmost suspicion. On several occasions the army complicated the shoot, forbidding access to certain planned locations and refusing to grant authorisation to film. Once the film was finished, every effort was made to delay its release, at least until the end of the war. Certain Germanophile members of the military even demanded the destruction of the negative. To obtain its release, the producers had to accept that a scene be shortened. Director Leopold Lindtberg worked with practically unknown or amateur actors. The three escaped prisoners of war were, in fact, themselves allied soldiers that for different reasons happened somehow to be in Switzerland at that time. |
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