第二次世界大戦中、ナチスドイツに占領されたフランス。ナチスによる迫害を恐れるユダヤ人科学者バーグソンとその一家は、スペインに脱出することを計画。羊の飼育業者をしているバスク人の老男性にガイド役を依頼し、フランスとスペインの国境にある、雪に覆われたピレネー山脈を乗り越えようと挑む。一方、ナチス親衛隊の残忍な将校フォン・バーコウは異常なまでに執念を燃やしながらバーグソン一家を追い続け……。
AIが作品の魅力を深く読み解いています
監督: J. Lee Thompson
脚本: Bruce Nicolaysen
音楽: Michael J. Lewis
制作: Maurice Binder / Derek Dawson / Geoffrey Helman
撮影監督: Michael Reed
制作会社: Hemdale / Passage Films / Monday Films
Malcom McDowall manages to portray the epitome of Nazi SS nastiness in this story with a worryingly natural aplomb! He is leading a party pursuing James Mason ("Prof. Bergson") who, alongside his family, is being smuggled from France into Spain by the wily shepherd Anthony Quinn. Their journey is fraught with danger as they must cross the inhospitable terrain of the Pyrenee mountains with snow up to their thighs - whilst McDowall ("Capt. Von Berkow") uses just about every brutal technique in the book to strike fear into everyone who has seen/helped them as he tries to apprehend the professor. The production standards are a bit on the low side (not that the cold and variable light quality could have been of much help); the dialogue is badly captured with a poor audio mix and although there are certainly some horrific scenes - the end of Christopher Lee's brief contribution comes to mind - it's is all just a bit on the procedural side. Quinn portrays the cantankerous, brave, Basque very much it style of many of his previous roles - he sort of grunts his way though the thing with little by way of engagement with us, the audience, and the ending goes from thrilling to silly in a matter of a few frames!. The photography is splendid, and the story has a taut pace to it - it just isn't very good.
