Product Details

• Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Kristin Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi, Cyril Cusack, Brenda Bruce
• Directors: Jack Gold
• Writers: Graham Greene, Lee Langley
• Producers: David A. Rosemont, Michael Stringer, Norman Rosemont, William Hill, William Self
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302717353
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,085 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE TENTH MAN, July 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tenth Man [VHS] (VHS Tape)

OCCUPIED FRANCE - WORLD WAR II: You've just eaten in a Paris restaurant and you exit. All of a sudden, you are picked up by the Germans and herded off in a truck to prison. A German has been murdered, and you just may have to pay the ultimate price- your life! The only way to save your life is to offer a trade- your wealth and home. A young Frenchman takes the offer. Later, you do attempt to withdraw the agreement...but, the young Frenchman won't. Three years later, you're out of prison with no where to go. You find yourself outside the home you swapped, and you walk up to the door. You hide your identity from the young woman, the Frenchman's sister. You work for her, and eventually care forher very much. Then, one day, someone else comes to the door. He gives your true identity as his! Who is this man? What does he want? And, how will it all end? This 1988 movie is well acted. You will be delighted to see a young Kristin Scott Thomas giving a fine performance. She holds her own quite well with Sir Anthony Hopkins.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dilemma Played Out With Great Acting, October 9, 2009

By 

Scott FS (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Tenth Man [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Superb acting from Anthony Hopkins, Kristen Scott Thomas, and Derek Jacobi make the story of a devil's bargain believable and come to life.

Based upon a short story by Graham Greene, The Tenth Man is about a group of French citizens rounded up the the Germans in World War II. The Germans tell the group of thirty that they will be 'decimated', in other words, one out of every 10 prisoners will be executed. They are to decide themselves who the three doomed men will be. They decide to draw slips of paper; those marked with an 'X' will be the ones shot at dawn.

Wealthy lawyer Jean-Louis Chavel, thrown in with the group of otherwise ordinary men, draws one of the slips. He is accused of looking at the slip before drawing it; but it's obvious that when he draws a slip with an 'X' on it, he hadn't. He is devastated. He has an idea, he offers out loud 100,000 francs to anyone who will take his place. He finds no takers, until a young man known as Janvier expresses interest in the offer. Janvier tells Chavel that he has a mother and sister he could will the money to. Eventually, Chavel offers up everything he has, 350,000 francs, his home, his orchard, his garden, everything to Janvier. Janvier is sick and doesn't want to die without providing for his family. He says that he always knew he would be rich; and now he will die a rich man. Papers are drawn up, for Chavel is a lawyer, giving everything to the younger man. Janvier asks that Chavel draws up his will, giving everything to his mother and sister. Chavel finds two witnesses, and gives the document to a prisoner who is not marked for death. The next morning, Chavel watches through the prison window as Janvier and two others are shot by firing squad.

The film cuts to three years later, as France has been liberated and the prisoners, including Chavel, have been freed. He has been reviled in prison for being a rich man who was able to buy his life, but he walks out the prison as penniless as the most destitute of the prisoners. He has no family to ease his way back to society. Reduced essentially to begging, he shows up as his former house, claiming to be Charlot a prisoner who knew Michel, which was Janvier's real name. The door is opened by Therese Mangeot, Michel's sister. Chavel/Charlot explains that he knew of the property transfer, and that he was hungry and wanted something to eat, if it was possible. Therese asks if he knew Chavel, he said he had. She said that she would spit in his face and kill him if he ever showed up at the home. She expected that one day he would. She said she and her mother had an apartment in Paris and would much rather have Michel alive than be isolated in this estate in the country. The next day, Therese offers a job to Charlot, saying the farm is too much for her and her elderly mother.

A relationship of sorts develops and grows between the two, though Chavel is always concerned that the truth might come out, and destroy their friendship, perhaps even resulting in Therese making good on her threat to kill him. Things remain on this path, with Therese growing more and more comfortable with Charlot.

A knock on the door on rainy, gloomy night changes everything, when a man claiming to be the hated Chavel shows up at the door. It's a man named Carosse, who obviously isn't Chavel, but someone with a dark secret to conceal.

The plot delves into questions of truth; which man is telling the truth, and who can Therese trust? Carosse is armed and tells Chavel the police are after him. Carosse tells Chavel to just leave; Carosse can 'lay low' for a night, or a few days. This is Chavel's chance to leave while someone else appears to be the cowardly Chavel. But that would leave Therese in the company of an armed man with a sketchy past. And it appears that Therese is more than a bit interested in the man who made such a desperate bargain with her brother.

Highly recommended. 4 and 1/2 stars. The three actors are excellent in this short film, with every note and every moral dilemma and questionable action ringing true. I'd like to watch this one again.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well told but low key TV version of Graham Greene novel, July 7, 2007

By 

Mr. Stephen Kennedy "skenn1701a" (Doha, Qatar) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tenth Man [PAL, Region 2, Import] (Perfect Paperback)

Excellent actors and well conceived storyline elevate this movie from its ordinary TV movie of the month origins.
Set in WW II, Hopkins plays Cheval - an ordinary man, a lawyer, trying to live his life unobtrusively amid the occupation. His life is upturned when he is taken in along with a group of others by the Germans and put in jail, ready to be shot as an example to the resistance. When that time comes, he buys his life, giving all he has to another man who wishes to leave the house and wealth for his mother and sister Therese (Kirsten Scott-Thomas).
3 years later after the war, Hopkins returns to his house, and meets the sister, never letting on who he actually is. The lies threaten to unravel when a man (Derek Jacobi) then appears, announcing himself as Chavel.
The story is told in an economical way, leading to a relatively short 95 minute running time, and unfolds rather more like a play than a movie. The first act - the prison cell, where Chavel has the moment of weakness he will regret his whole life, The second act - Chavel after the war gains the trust of Therese. And then the third act - The stranger arrives and all the lies become a tortuous mess ultimately leading to a satisfying and inevitable conclusion.
It is not really a war story, but a character study. What can you do if you have a moment of weakness with consequences that cannot be undone? When all you have is guilt, what can be done to make things right? As for the production in general, the music is often overdone, but the subtlety of the acting and fine French locations cover over the TV budget cracks.
A typically well told Graham Greene story, with Hopkins bringing real nuances to the role of Cheval, this deserves a wider audience than its TV movie label suggests, even if it is not up with the best Greene adaptations. 7 / 10 (for the acting!)