Anthony Higgins in 1990s

1991

One Against the Wind

The basis of this film was a historical book, "No Drums©No Trumpets," written by Barry Wynn, that tells the story of Countess Mary Lindell, who was a nurse in the First World War, and who continued to do her duty during the Second World War. Rescuing British officers, who fell in the occupation of France, she conveyed them across the border, violating all kinds of taboos, and risking her own life and freedom.

For Anthony Higgins the role in this picture was another work on a character of the Second World War epoch. The actor's progression is obvious - from tiny roles of seaman Berg in "Voyage of the Damned" (1976) and of Major Gobler in "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), to the role of German dissident Erich in "The Cold Room" (1984), he comes to the image of Captain SS Hermann Gruber with the rich acting experience he already had, and now he can play character roles as he wants.

Perhaps, you'll like the complicated character of the Captain. Anthony Higgins' work is interesting: he became older, his art of acting is almost perfect, but at the same time, it might seem that he did not say anything new in this role: no new shades in the character of the Nazi, no new nuances in facial expressions and gestures. Perhaps, they are not new from the standpoint of Russian viewer. But from the perspective of the European viewer Gruber has a lot of new tones: his polite manners, his intelligence and hidden motivations of his actions make him believable character. Ten years after "Indiana Jones" the coldness of Major Gobler has transformed into passionate nature of Herman Gruber, who is leading by a hunting instinct, sadistic tendencies and very romantic ideas about lifestyle. As all officers of the Third Reich, Gruber has strange proportions of mixed notions of Good and Evil, but the firmness of his character's life philosophy, as was the case with Erich in "The Cold Room", is still indestructible.

The relationship between Gruber and the main heroine, Mary Lindell, is strained, but his interest in her is doubtless. The only question is: What kind of this interest is? At the beginning of the movie, you think he wants to save Mary, in the middle - he wants to kill her, but towards the end you are finally at a loss: Lindell was trying to abscond arrest, but was wounded, and when her health is on the mend, Gruber wants to take her from the hospital. He made arrangement that he will take Mary by himself, alone, without escort. Only the driver was supposed to be a witness to this. But alas! on the way to the hospital the Captain's car fell into an ambush made by guerrilla team. The shooting of the driver and the officer takes a few seconds. I was very disappointed. Wrong audience reaction? With all Captain's love of the English poetry and with all the depth of his romantic soul, he could still kill the heroine as easily as a fly, but, on the other hand, the motivation for his actions has not disclosed not by actor or by director, or by the very history. This problem often arises with historic movies - as a viewer, you want to know what will happen next, but this is a real life, so there are no other versions.

Soundtrack is at Soundtracks page.

I would like to thank Tatiana and Olga for the copy of the movie.