Ten Seconds to Hell

Ten Seconds To Hell (released in the UK as The Phoenix) is a 1959 British and West German film directed by Robert Aldrich and based upon Lawrence P. Bachmann's novel, The Phoenix. The Hammer Films/UFA joint production stars Jack Palance, Jeff Chandler and Martine Carol. Set in the aftermath of World War II, the film focuses on a half-dozen German POW's who return to a devastated Berlin and find employment as a bomb disposal squad, tasked with clearing the city of unexploded Allied bombs. Their fatalistic duties lead them to form a macabre pact; they donate a part of their individual paychecks into a pool that those still surviving at the end of three months divide the money. Eventually, only two men are left, and they are both in love with the same woman. Robert Aldrich's direction is noted for its meticulous attention to the techniques of bomb deactivation and disposal.