40's movie, master chess player in prison, makes chess pieces from bread

January 18, 2016 5:09 PM

This is for a friend, who saw this movie on tv as a kid: Chess player in prison, uses scraps of bread to make chess pieces, plays all the time. Upon release from prison, goes into a cafe (?) and seeing the floor made of black and white square tiles, "goes crazy." The End.

The rest of plot, such as it was, went over her 8 year old head. I found a reference to "Brainwashed" which seems to have some of the elements, but she's sure it was an American movie.

Any chance anyone can pinpoint this for her?

posted by kestralwing to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Best answer: Google turned up a movies.stackexchange.com question about a similar movie, which is summarized there as follows:

In WW2 an intelectual (not a Jew) is arrested and isolated in a hotel by the Nazis. He teaches himself chess only by a book he found at his prison. After the guards find the book and take it away, he starts, like you described, to build chess pieces from bread and uses his blanket as board (but he plays not against his guard/interogator, only against himself). After WW2, he is freed but a broken man. He travels with a ship to America, and the chess champion is also on the ship and invites some people to play against him. The ex-prisoner then tells the people the move you mentioned, so they can win against the chess champion.

The page has an embedded video of the movie, so your friend can see if it is the right thing.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 5:15 PM on January 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Brainwashed is the English title of the German movie Schachnovelle. It's in Black and White, and set in 1938, but was made in 1960.

It may have been dubbed, but I can't find confirmation of it.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:05 PM on January 18, 2016

Best answer: I want to say that I remember this movie, as well, but I will be Good God Damned if I can remember it.
posted by jpolchlopek at 7:19 PM on January 18, 2016

Best answer: Definitely Schachnovelle.
posted by The Toad at 7:26 PM on January 18, 2016

Response by poster: This is it!! My friend started remembering the rest of the plot, and this is the one she remembered. Thanks!
posted by kestralwing at 5:40 PM on January 21, 2016