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Escape

Play trailer Poster for Escape 1940 1h 45m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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60% Tomatometer 5 Reviews 60% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
After discovering that his mother, a renowned German actress (Nazimova), is being held in a Nazi concentration camp, her American son, Mark Preysing (Robert Taylor), heads to Germany to track her down. While Mark initially finds little help, he is eventually aided by the empathetic American expatriate Countess Ruby von Treck (Norma Shearer) and a German doctor (Philip Dorn), and a bold plan evolves to smuggle his mother out of the camp and to the United States.

Critics Reviews

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Variety Staff Variety 02/23/2012
It is excellent, suspenseful material and director Mervyn LeRoy succeeds admirably in sustaining throughout the picture a tense atmosphere of impending danger to the lives and limbs of his actors. Go to Full Review George Orwell Time and Tide 10/02/2023
It makes play, fairly effectively, with the horror of the Gestapo, but as to why the Gestapo exists, how Hitler reached his present position, what he is trying to achieve, it utters not a word. Go to Full Review John Kinloch California Eagle 10/31/2019
The film effectively proves the following: (1) Conrad Veidt is one of the world's finest actors; (2) Robert Taylor is industriously learning how to act. Go to Full Review Francisco J. Ariza Cine-Mundial 09/16/2019
The picture is of a convincing realism. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 01/18/2014
C+
Glossy and sentimental Holocaust story. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Steve D 12/25/2023 Melodramatic and unconvincing. See more andy f 03/14/2022 This film was only released in 1940 yet it articulately shows the horrors of the Nazi regime. It's a macabre and atmospheric piece, but it does fade quite a bit in the last third. See more ashley h @ashleyhobgood87 01/26/2020 Escape is a decent film. It is about a young man who arrives in Hitler's Germany, frantically seeking information about his German mother in 1938. Norma Shearer and Robert Taylor give good performances. The screenplay is a little slow in places. Mervyn LeRoy did an alright job directing this movie. I liked this motion picture because of the drama. See more 11/20/2015 good chemistry between Taylor & Shearer See more 07/21/2008 A fine overlooked film one of Norma Shearer's last and best. Studio bound but still an interesting story. Bonita Granville plays her part as a vicious and evil little viper well. See more 02/17/2008 underated, has a casablanca feel to it, was made before it though, and very suspenseful. involves strict nazi germany. See more Read all reviews
Escape

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Cast & Crew

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Mervyn LeRoy

Director

Norma Shearer

Countess Ruby von Treck

Robert Taylor

Mark Preysing

Conrad Veidt

General Kurt von Kolb

Alla Nazimova

Emmy Ritter

Felix Bressart

Fritz Keller
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Escape

Escape (1940) Escape (1940) Escape (1940) Escape (1940) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis After discovering that his mother, a renowned German actress (Nazimova), is being held in a Nazi concentration camp, her American son, Mark Preysing (Robert Taylor), heads to Germany to track her down. While Mark initially finds little help, he is eventually aided by the empathetic American expatriate Countess Ruby von Treck (Norma Shearer) and a German doctor (Philip Dorn), and a bold plan evolves to smuggle his mother out of the camp and to the United States.
Director
Mervyn LeRoy
Producer
Mervyn LeRoy, Lawrence Weingarten
Screenwriter
Arch Oboler, Marguerite Roberts
Production Co
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Runtime
1h 45m