Scarlet and the Black, The (1983) – Nostalgia Central

Based on a true story, this three-hour made-for-television movie is set in Rome during World War II, after the Nazis have occupied the city.

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (Gregory Peck) is an Irish priest who, from his post at the Vatican, does clandestine intelligence work for the Allies and hides escaped Allied POWs, downed pilots and family members of Italian resistance fighters.

As a Vatican official, O’Flaherty enjoys diplomatic immunity as the Nazis have elected to honour the neutrality of the Roman Catholic church.

But the priest sheds that protection by taking to the streets of Rome, disguised as a street-sweeper, a postman, even a nun, to continue his life-saving work – even after the Nazis target him for assassination.

In one delectable scene, O’Flaherty flaunts the painted white line separating papal sanctity and Nazi rule. While the jaunty Monsignor does an Irish jig along the line, German guns are trained on him, looking for the slightest misstep.

Herbert Kappler (Christopher Plummer) is a colonel in the SS. While great pains are taken to show Kappler being the perfect parent with his children, on the job, he is part of a conspiracy to exterminate Jews.

When Italian soldiers won’t execute a gun-running countryman who happens to be a priest, Kappler pulls the trigger himself.

Meanwhile, his commanders are pressuring him to tighten the noose around Rome.

Ultimately, his success is equated with stopping O’Flaherty, and it becomes Kappler’s obsession to capture “that damn priest.”

The film becomes a test of wills between these two men, made even more dynamic by potent performances by the proper Plummer and the impeccable Peck.

Filmed entirely in Rome, The Scarlet and the Black is “escapist” entertainment in the best sense of the term.

The real Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty was honoured after the war by Italy, Canada and Australia, given the US Medal of Freedom, and made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE). He died in 1963.

Herbert Kappler was sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes.

He was diagnosed with cancer in 1975 and died in February 1978, six months after escaping from a prison hospital with the help of his wife.

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty
Gregory Peck
Col. Herbert Kappler
Christopher Plummer
Pope Pius XII
Sir John Gielgud
Father Vittorio
Raf Vallone
Capt. Hirsch
Kenneth Colley
Gen. Max Helm
Walter Gotell
Minna Kappler
Barbara Bouchet
Alfred West
Julian Holloway
Father Morosini
Angelo Infanti
Francesca Lombardo
Olga Karlatos
Reinhard Beck
Michael Byrne
Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler
T.P. McKenna
Count Langenthal
Vernon Dobtcheff
Lt. Jack Manning
John Terry
Sir D’Arcy Osborne
Peter Burton
Lt. Harry Barnett
Phillip Hatton
Cpl. Les Tate
Mark Lewis
Guila Lombardo
Fabiana Udenio
Papal Secretary
Marne Maitland
Rabbi Leoni
Remo Remotti
Simon Weiss
Giovanni Crippa
Paddy Doyle
Billy Boyle
Franz Kappler
Itaco Nardulli
Liesel Kappler
Carridi Nardulli
Emilia Lombardo
Alessandra Cozzo
Mother Superior
Gabriella D’Olive
O’Flaherty’s Secretary
Stelio Candelli
Cameriere Segreto
Francesco Carnelutti

Director
Jerry London

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