Home / The Scarlet and the Black

The Scarlet and the Black

Year:

1983

Duration:

143 min | Spain:136 min

Genres:

Drama | History | War

IMDB rate:

7.8

Director:

Jerry London

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 2 nominations

Details

Country: USA

Release Date: 1983-02-02

Filming Locations: Rome, Lazio, Italy

Cast

Actor

Character

John Terry

Raf Vallone

Gregory Peck

Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty

Christopher Plummer

Col. Herbert Kappler

John Gielgud

Pope Pius XII

Kenneth Colley

Capt. Hirsch (as Ken Colley)

Walter Gotell

Gen. Max Helm

Barbara Bouchet

Minna Kappler

Julian Holloway

Alfred West

Angelo Infanti

Father Morosini

Olga Karlatos

Francesca Lombardo

Michael Byrne

Reinhard Beck

T.P. McKenna

Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler

Vernon Dobtcheff

Count Langenthal

Peter Burton

Sir D'Arcy Osborne

Phillip Hatton

Lt. Harry Barnett

Mark Lewis

Cpl. Les Tate

Fabiana Udenio

Guila Lombardo

Marne Maitland

Papal Secretary

Remo Remotti

Rabbi Leoni

Giovanni Crippa

Simon Weiss

Billy Boyle

Paddy Doyle

Itaco Nardulli

Franz Kappler

Cariddi Nardulli

Liesel Kappler (as Carridi Nardulli)

Alessandra Cozzo

Emilia Lombardo

William Berger

U.S. Intelligence Officer (as Bill Berger)

Edmund Purdom

British Intelligence Officer / Epilogue Narrator (as Edmond Purdom)

Gabriella D'Olive

Mother Superior

Cesarina Tacconi

Pregnant Woman

David Brandon

SS Officer

Sergio Nicolai

Firing Squad Officer

Bruno Corazzari

Coalman

Stelio Candelli

O'Flaherty's Secretary

Francesco Carnelutti

Cameriere Segreto

Greg Anthony

Prisoner of War (uncredited)

Angelo Boscariol

Man at the opera (uncredited)

Gabriele Ferzetti

Prince Mataeo (uncredited)

Alfonso Giganti

Nazi officer (uncredited)

Giovanni Lombardo Radice

Nazi Soldier (uncredited)

Did you know?

Trivia

One of three occasions in his film career where John Gielgud played a pope. The other two were The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), where he played the fictional Pope Pius XIII, and Elizabeth (1998), where he played the real-life Pope Pius V.

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While serving his sentence in prison, Herbert Kappler divorced his first wife and married his nurse, Anneliese, in 1972. In 1975 he was diagnosed with cancer. As the authorities refused to release him, in 1977 Anneliese carried Kappler out of prison in a large suitcase (he weighed less than 105 pounds at the time). They escaped to West Germany where Kappler died six months later.

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This film's closing epilogue states: "After the liberation, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty was honored by Italy, Canada and Australia, given the U.S. Medal of Freedom and made a Commander of the British Empire [CBE]. Herbert Kappler was sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes. In the long years that followed in his Italian prison, Kappler had only one visitor. Every month, year in and year out, O'Flaherty came to see him. In 1959, the former head of the dreaded Gestapo in Rome was baptised into the Catholic faith at the hand of the Irish priest."

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Goofs

In at least four scenes, Herbert Kappler wears a black SS parade tunic instead of his usual office gray uniform. By 1943, when the film is set, the SS had completely phased the black SS tunic out of service and this uniform would not have been worn at even the most formal of functions.

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When Hugh O'Flaherty escapes from the Gestapo by disguising himself as a coal hauler, the SS officer who stops to question him wears rank insignia on the wrong side of the uniform collar.

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When the priest, disguised as a Sturmbahnführer, is eluding his pursuers, the film is shown reversed; medal ribbons and collar insignia are on the wrong sides.

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Quotes

Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty: Colonel, do I get the idea that you're tryin' to put a crimp in my social life?

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