Television films often have a bad rep for being low-budget, unremarkable, and possibly even boring, endeavors. Jerry London's 1983 The Scarlet and the Black (based on J.P. Gallagher's novel The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican) shatters that mold, and then some. When you've got actors like Gregory Peck, Christopher Plummer and Sir John Gielgud sharing the screen, you know you're onto something special. The Scarlet and the Black probably won't be ranked highly among their respective resumes, but it will definitely be remembered for their powerful portrayals of real-life people, battling out good and evil in the shadow of the Vatican.
When Nazi Germany captured Italy in 1943, Rome was not spared any of the barbarity that the Germans visited upon the rest of Europe. Under the command of SS Colonel Herbert Kappler (Plummer), Jews were sent to death camps, resistance groups were suppressed, and Allied prisoners-of-war (who had escaped from captivity when Italy surrendered to the Allies) were hunted. Kappler's jurisdiction and de facto power over life and death brought him into conflict with Pope Pius XII (Gielgud), who had to toe the very thin line between resisting the Nazi presence in Rome, and doing nothing that would give the Nazis incentive to overrun the Vatican state. To that effect, Kappler promised that Vatican neutrality would be respected, as long as the Church did nothing to interfere with his activities in Rome.
While Pius XII's hands were tied, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty (Peck), an Irish priest serving in the Holy See, organized an enormous network of civilians and fellow priests to rescue and rehabilitate injured and escaped Allied POWs and Jewish refugees. Both Kappler and Pius XII become aware of O'Flaherty's activities: the pope encourages his priest to do the right thing, but not at the risk of exposing the Vatican to Nazi hostility; Kappler promises O'Flaherty that if he is caught outside Vatican territory, he will be shot on sight.
When it comes down to it, The Scarlet and the Black is about two men: O'Flaherty in his robes and modest living quarters, scurrying from safe house to safe house, moving POWs and Jews, offering prayers and strength; and Kappler in his SS uniform, in his lavish office adorned with Nazi standards and portraits of Nazi leaders, or showing his children around museums, proudly proclaiming that the city of Rome is theirs. As their respective worlds collide, the characters change, too. O'Flaherty's Irish pluck is replaced by nightmares, and Kappler recedes into panic and paranoia as his every attempt to capture O'Flaherty (even going so far as to send assassins into the Vatican) is thwarted.