Ten Seconds to Hell

This gripping bomb-defusal thriller anticipates elements of Kathryn Bigelow’s THE HURT LOCKER, but Aldrich was dissatisfied with the result because the producers cut the finished film. Shortly after the Second World War, six former German soldiers are recruited by the British occupying forces to remove unexploded bombs in Berlin. They agree to a wager: after three months, half of their wages will be divided among the survivors. A struggle for dominance develops between the disillusioned idealist Fritz Koertner (Jack Palance) and the cynic Karl Wirtz (Jeff Chandler) – a confrontation between two opposing worldviews. TEN SECONDS TO HELL is also a bleak variation on the German rubble film, drawing on Henri Georges Clouzot’s classic LE SALAIRE DE LA PEUR: existential suspense oscillating between sequences of nail biting tension and psychological drama. (C.H.)