Plot
The movie centers around efforts by German intelligence to find the target of an upcoming raid by the mythical "B-99 bomber." To achieve this end, they interrogate a recently shot-down air crew.
The German officers use various methods to discover this information, some of them quite subtle. Though no physical brutality is used, the Germans at one point stage a mock execution to scare a prisoner. Another prisoner is subjected to isolation to heighten his fear. Each airman eventually provides useful information because of their arrogance, fear, or naivete. Some of what they say, which the enemy finds useful, seems innocuous but is used by the Germans as pieces to solve the larger puzzle.
In the end, the Germans are able to find the target of the raid and the B-99 bombing mission is intercepted. The intended target is spared heavy damage and 21 B-99's are shot down with the loss of 105 aircrew. The message of the movie, delivered by an intelligence officer played by Lloyd Nolan, is to not talk under any circumstances, that even innocuous conversation can help the enemy, not to let down one's guard, everything in a prison camp is suspect, and to not try to outwit the enemy.
Read more about this topic: Resisting Enemy Interrogation
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“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)