Though shot during World War II, 1944’s The Seventh Cross creates a tale related to that conflict but not about it. Instead, the film takes us to Nazi Germany circa 1936.

At Westhofen concentration camp, seven prisoners escape. Commander Fahrenburg (George Zucco) sets up seven crosses on the property and declares he will capture every escapee and hang each from these.

Gestapo investigator Overkamp (John Wengraf) gradually tracks down and captures all of these men but one. This leads the sole survivor on a desperate attempt to find freedom.

I left out the name of that lone potentially successful escapee because I like to avoid spoilers. Heck, the revelation that six of the seven won’t survive feels “spoilery” enough, but because the movie’s promotional materials make it clear this will happen, it feels like fair game.

Even though I didn’t name the man who might succeed, you earn no points if you figure it out on your own given the flick’s billing. But I’ll stop there.

Because we know six of the seven escapees won’t succeed, that seems likely to reduce viewer tension. While I think Seventh lacks real intensity, I don’t actually blame this on the knowledge that only one escapee survives.

Instead, director Fred Zinnemman simply fails to depict the tale in a manner that generates stress for the audience. As we follow the escapee, we mostly watch him skulk around streets and look nervous.

The lone survivor involves various other parties. In theory, that adds to the drama as well since he can’t really know who to trust.

But it doesn’t. Whereas Seventh should crackle with nail-biting moments, instead it simply struggles to find a groove.

Odd choices don’t help. We hear narration from Ernst Wallau (Ray Collins), one of the escapees who doesn’t survive.

This comes from beyond the grave, though, as the film decides to allow Ernst to comment on events as a spectral observer. This feels utterly unnecessary and silly.

We also find distracting inconsistency in terms of characters’ accents. Some speak with American tones, some with German.

I guess that more of the baddies lean Teutonic, but this doesn’t turn into a perfect rule. Instead, it just seems odd and random.

With dramatic subject matter and a quality cast and crew, Seventh should sizzle. Unfortunately, the movie fails to find a groove and it bores more than it intrigues.

The Seventh Cross appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a consistently pleasing presentation.

Sharpness usually appeared very good. The film only suffered from a few slightly ill-defined shots, as the majority of the flick demonstrated nice delineation.

I saw no problems with jagged edges or shimmering, and the movie lacked edge haloes. Grain appeared light but natural and print flaws remained absent.

Blacks appeared deep and rich, while low-light shots demonstrated nice definition and clarity. This ended up as a solid image.

Although the DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack of Seventh didn’t demonstrate anything special, it worked fine for its era and genre. Speech seemed slightly thin but was good for its age, as lines remained intelligible and clear.

Music demonstrated reasonable range. The score didn’t impress, but it appeared acceptably bright.

Effects became a minor component in this chatty flick, and they came across as reasonably accurate. Though they had little heft, they were clean and didn’t suffer from distortion or other concerns. The audio appeared positive for its era.

Along with the movie’s trailer, we get three vintage shorts. Rather than match these to the era of Seventh’s release, instead they all come from Fred Zinnemann, its director.

We find One Against the World (1939, 10:41), Forbidden Passage (1941, 20:42) and Your Last Act (1941, 10:54). With World, we go to 1809 to learn about Dr. Ephraim McDowell (Jonathan Hale), a pioneer as a surgeon.

Passage covers US attempts to stop smugglers who prey on desperate immigrants. Finally, Act provides a look at various unusual bequests left behind by deceased people.

Both World and Passage come from a series called John Nesbitt’s Passing Parade. Neither stands as memorable, though they offer moderately interesting tales.

From the Crime Doesn’t Pay franchise of shorts, Passage fares better, as Zinnemann makes it genuinely disturbing. All three allow us an intriguing glimpse of the filmmaker’s early works.

On paper, The Seventh Cross offers a taut thriller about a man on the run from the Nazis. As executed, though, the movie seems oddly sluggish and without much tension. The Blu-ray boasts appealing picture and audio as well as a few short films from Seventh’s famous director. While I hoped to get a tight drama from Seventh, the end product failed to go much of anywhere.