Situation Hopeless -- But Not Serious (1965)

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

If you're an older individual or a younger one with more of a brain than most, you'll probably enjoy the humor of this film. It's not laugh out loud hilarious but it has some good performances in it. It's one of the best performances ever given by Mike Connors. Redford is good in it too and so is Alec Guinness, which should really surprise no one since he was a great actor.But this is an older comedy that requires some intellect to enjoy it. Suffice to say, if you're a fan of Adam Sandler, you probably won't understand it. It's also based on the first novel of actor Robert Shaw (Quint from "Jaws.") The novel is more serious than this film though, and the film was not as critically acclaimed as the novel. Many don't know Shaw was also a great writer as well as a great actor. He even wrote "The Man in the Glass Booth," one of the most famous plays ever written.But overall, it's a fun story and a very original idea. It's interesting to note that later on, Shaw and Robert Redford's names would be linked up again when they both appeared in the film "The Sting." And Alec Guinness also has worked with Shaw on stage in different plays.

Although most Americans have little knowledge of his work other than Star Wars, Alec Guinness produced an amazing body of work--particularly in the 1940s-1950s--ranging from dramas to quirky comedies. I particularly love his comedies, as they are so well-done and seem so natural and real on the screen--far different from the usual fare from Hollywood.This movie stars Robert Redford and Mike Connors as two aviators who are shot down over Germany during WW2. They are captured by civilian Guinness who doesn't have the heart to turn them in to the Nazis. So what does he do? That's right--creates his own jail and keeps them himself!! The problem is, Guinness is a lonely man and grows to like having these prisoners in his life. So much that when the war ends, he doesn't tell them and keeps them! Where this weird movie goes from there is something you'll just have to see for yourself. However, for some inexplicable reason, this movie has been panned by many. I'm not sure why, as I enjoyed it and admire it for its originality.

A lonely German civilian captures two American fliers in WW II and holds them prisoner in his basement. When the war is over, he can't bring himself to let them go so he continues to hold them prisoner and makes up stories he tells them about how the war would just keep going on and on and on...Such a good cast and a plot so terrible, it was shear torture to watch. I was so sure that with such a set of good leads it had to have been a good film; sadly I was wrong -- this was years before Schwarzenegger made RED SONJA. What made it worse was that it still made me want to know how it would turn out in the end. All it was, was scene after scene of Guinness telling his 2 guests stories about how Germany was winning the war. How Guinness and Redford got snagged into this disaster is beyond my comprehension.This film is a good example of why they created The Golden Raspberry Awards and this gets my nomination as worst of 1965.Too bad the vote scale here left out zero.

An American bomber goes down over Germany during WWII and two of its crew one officer and one sergeant find themselves as captives of a German civilian in his cellar. Alec Guinness, Robert Redford and Mike Connors star in this mid 60's comedy/drama caper. Guinness plays a somewhat milquetoast civilian who decides to hold the duo in his cellar. However once the war ends he fails to release them or alert the authorities opting instead to keep them informed the war is still going on by making up his own news on the conflict. The film lags at certain points but is still an entertaining off beat story.