Gregory Peck as Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty and Christopher Plummer as Colonial Kappler, head of the gestapo, play a magnificent cat and mouse game, walking the thin tightrope of Vatican neutrality during the 1943 Nazi occupation of Rome. Peck and Plummer are excellent. The film gets better the longer you watch, which brings me to my major criticism of "The Scarlet and the Black". The film is about 30 minutes too long, noticeably dragging due to redundant scenes of hide and seek. Ennio Morricone's score is another issue, as it is far from memorable. The movie is entertaining and informative, but flawed by it's excessive length of 2.5 plus hours. - MERK
Review of The Scarlet and the Black
