But Not Serious is a 1965 oddball comedy film shot in black and white directed by Gottfried Reinhardt and starring Alec Guinness, Mike Connors and Robert Redford.

The title is a derived from Viennese Alfred Polgar's[1] quip, "The situation is desperate but not serious.

"[2] On 27 November 1944, during World War II, two American fliers, Captain Hank Wilson and Sergeant Lucky Finder, have to bail out over Germany.

They land in the small town of Altheim, where Wilhelm Frick reads his horoscope and it says an exciting change will happen that day.

He initially locks them in and is going to inform the authorities when one claims German descent and he softens.

His boss listens to the radio regarding the Allied advance: the Germans have lost Aachen ... the end of the war is close.

They get hobbies: one sketching cartoons while the other does metalwork, which enables him to make a lockpick and they unlock themselves just as Frick returns.

The story then jumps to VE Day (May 1945) with Frick listening to the radio announcement regarding the end of the war.

On VE Day, he brings a large bottle of 10 year old Swiss kirsch and is about to tell them the news.

Frick gives them a false history of the war and simply says that the Americans have captured Strasbourg.

Frick seems to go a bit crazy and is put in a hospital, but security is lax and he steals a bike and goes home.

The two men try to steal a small boat and are spotted by Wanda, the daughter of the owner.