There’s been a bit of a gap in the Friday Night Movie series because I’ve been too busy with other stuff to make time to watch the movies that I want to upload. Sorry to those who like this feature for the interruption in this service.

Anyway, for the return of the Friday Night Movie feature I have a classic tale of crime, injustice and betrayal in the form of the 1953 film Desperate Moment starring Dirk Bogarde. This film takes place in occupied Germany shortly after the Second World War. Simon Van Halder, played by Bogarde, is a man who had been involved in resistance activities during the war but broke out of his displaced persons camp and met up with former colleagues. Van Halder is injured and desperately needs penicillin, at the time a ‘wonder drug’ that was in short supply and highly sought after. Van Halder’s colleagues break into a British Army depot and steal some penicillin in order to stop Van Halder, who wasn’t present during the raid, from dying. Unfortunately during the raid a British serviceman was shot dead and Van Halder is picked up for the murder, tried and convicted. Because he was under the age of majority at the time Van Halder is not sentenced to death for the murder but is confined to a German prison for life.

Despite not being present during the burglary on the army base, Van Halder is the only one of the gang of men who is caught. He knows he was innocent of the murder and with the help of his girlfriend, who the gang’s leader had told Van Halder had been killed by the Germans, he sets out to prove his innocence and find the real killer. The only problem that Van Halder has is that he has escaped from prison in order to track down the real killer and not only must Van Halder deal with the matter of finding the real killer of the British soldier, he also must do so whilst living as a fugitive.

I’d never come across this movie before and I was delighted to discover it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed it.