On D-Day, a mixed group of forced labourers held by German forces take shelter from the bombardment inside a German bunker, but are then entombed when the entrances are blocked by shelling damage. By coincidence, the bunker is a storehouse, so the prisoners have enough food and wine to last them for years. However, they are trapped not for years but permanently, and the film analyses how they deal with their underground prison, with their relationships, and with death.
The book and film appear to have been inspired by a possibly true story: On 25 June 1951, Time magazine reported that two German soldiers claimed to have been trapped for six years in an underground storehouse in Babie Doły, Poland.[6][7]
Edgar Bronfman Jnr, when only a teenager, was working on one of his father's films in London while on summer vacation. He came across a script called The Blockhouse by John Gould and Clive Rees. In the summer of 1972 Bronfman and Anthony Rufus-Isaacs combined to produce the film, which was shot in Guernsey (Channel Islands), under the direction of Rees. Filming took place in June 1972.[8]
"I've fallen in love with producing" said Bronfman "and I plan to make it my life's work."[9]
"It's a film for the connoisseurs of cinema," said Sellers. "It's a very heavy movie. It could easily put you on a downer... Clive Rees, who directed it, is brilliant, every bit as good as Stanley Kubrick.[10]
Release
The film was shown at the Berlin Film Festival but was never given a general release in Britain. Hemdale recut the film adding footage to show time passing, and putting in a new ending where the two lead characters survived. (In real life the two survivors died almost immediately after being released.)[11] Cannon Films initially acquired U.S. theatrical rights, and gave it a limited release beginning in January 1974.
The film was initially released on DVD by MGM in 2005, and later re-released on Blu-ray by Powerhouse Films in January 2022.[12]
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This real-life horror story ...begins with a remarkably deft if conventional prologue, describing the work routine in a Nazi slave labour camp and the confusion created by a naval bombardment which leads to the main characters' entombment. The lively camerawork and editing in this sequence lends an edge of expectancy as to how the film – as much as its characters – will subsequently face up to the cruel confinement. Its response, unfortunately, turns out to be a painfully solemn and unrewarding self-martyrdom. Once the characters are over their ecstatic discovery of sufficient food and other necessities to keep them in a style to which they've never been accustomed, and the first hints of conflict (and even of clear character delineation) have been worn away by the encroaching boredom, the film simply settles down to record their physical degeneration. It piously refuses to detach itself from their experience, and to offer any kind of reflection on the situation which would enable the viewer to apprehend it as anything other than an uncomfortable way to spend an hour and a half. The international mixture of star names in the cast rather baldly and inadequately conjures up the crosssection of pillaged Europe which these slave workers represent. But given the film's minimal dramatic means, its refusal to supply much in the way of personal histories or social backgrounds, these star personas are occasionally driven dangerously close to the surface: when the film allows itself a rare comic interlude, for instance, as schoolteacher Peter Sellers tries to work out his own confusion about how the game of dominoes could be of both English and Greek origin, it suddenly seems as if Sellers is emerging from the shadows to play Inspector Clouseau. Only Jeremy Kemp, as the strong and silent figure of authority, benefits from the reticence of the film – which otherwise comes across as a Pinter play without the Pinter dialogue. Despite its barrenness, finally, there is something tautological about The Blockhouse: its painstakingly murky, ill-lit visuals becoming an unnecessary representation of its thematic obscurity and its dimness of character."[13]
TV Guide states that "the film tries to study men in a terrible, claustrophobic setting, but it never reveals the true nature of the characters or a metaphysical reason for their predicament. A worthy idea that sadly goes nowhere."[14]
The film currently holds a 73% approval rating (based on 126 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes.[15]
^MOVIES: Peter Sellers paces his 'life after death'
SISKEL, GENE. Chicago Tribune 25 June 1972: k4.
^Ah, To Be 18 and a Movie Mogul!: ALSO OPENING THIS WEEK SUSPENSEFUL PERRY SELECTED SHORTS FINAL CURTAIN MORE WHITMORE WHERE'S WINNER? To Be 18 and a Mogul!
By A. H. WEILER. New York Times 13 May 1973: 127.
^Sellers' market: In London, Bart Mills interviews Peter Sellers about his unfulfilled ambition.
Sellers, Peter. The Guardian (1959-2003); London (UK) [London (UK)]10 Mar 1973: 8.
^Clive Rees
Sight and Sound; London Vol. 58, Iss. 3, (Summer 1989): 146.
