Desperate Moment (1953) DVD-R

Starring Dirk Bogarde, Mai Zetterling, Philip Friend,
Albert Lieven and Fritz Wendhausen
Directed by Compton Bennett

Print: black/white
Runtime: 88 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B
 

Dirk Bogarde has a "Desperate Moment" or two in this 1953 film also starring Mai Zetterling. Bogarde plays Simon van Halder, a man serving a life sentence in postwar Europe for the murder of a British soldier. During the war, in a group with three other men, one of them, Paul (Wharf Watchman) told Simon that his girlfriend Anna (Mai Zetterling) had been murdered. In need of penicillin and in despair over Anna's death, Simon agrees to confess to the murder. The men steal penicillin for him.

Then, while convalescing in a prison hospital after an escape from a train gone awry, Simon gets a visit for Anna. He now know that Paul convinced him to confess by lying. He and Anna are desperate to get him a new trial, but the men with Simon need to be found. But Paul is still pulling the strings.