Defying his country’s neutrality, U.S. citizen Mark Preysing ventures into Nazi Germany to rescue his mother from a concentration camp. He befriends a countess (a Nazi general’s mistress) who assists in the rescue. Escape was one of the first American anti-Nazi films, and it became the target of an investigation by the Senate due to claims that Hollywood and the Roosevelt administration were using such films to promote the United States’ entry into World War II. 1940, U.S., BW, 16mm, 102 minutes.
Marguerite Roberts was one of the highest-paid screenwriters of her time, but MGM canceled her contract after she refused to name people in front of the HUAC. After the release of Ivanhoe (1952), from which her credit was cut, she could not sell a story in Hollywood until 1962. After her passport was denied, she was unable to travel or work abroad. Her stories and screenplays were used for Ziegfield Girl (1941), Dragon Seed (1944), The Sea of Grass (1947), and True Grit (1969).