In 1949, when this was released, the terms of the Cold War had been reasonably well clarified. A huge vacuum had been left by the collapse of the Nazi Reich and arguments followed over the question of how to divide it up between the several victors.
This film incorporates many of the more important issues, at least as we perceived and interpreted those issues at the time. The in conflict in occupied Austria is personalized in the atheistic military sensibilities of Walter Pidgeon, the simple faith of Mother Superior Ethel Barrymore, and the sneering treachery of Louis Calhern as Colonel Piniev. To maintain the interest of those who are bored by politics, there is the tragic romance between British officer Peter Lawford and the yummy displaced person Janet Leigh. The conflict boils down to what should be done with Leigh. The orders are to repatriate her and turn her over to the Soviet Union.
There is a masterful film out there covering some of these issues. That film is called "The Third Man." This one is full of stereotypes involving politics, religion, and love. Ho hum.
Brothers and sisters, this is really preachy. The Russians show no humanity, no remorse. The British sometimes bumble but play fair and are earnest about their humanitarianism. They're gently guided in the right direction by the quiet and elliptical remarks of the lovable old Mother Superior. The conflicts are real enough. Who wanted to live in the USSR under the brutal regime of Stalin? But there are ideological arguments between Pidgeon and Calhern, the latter sounding like a wind-up mannequin programmed to spout Marxism for Dummies.
It has three things going for it. Nice shots of a C 47 taking off and landing, the perky presence of Angela Lansbury, and it serves as a peek into the past, like looking through the wrong end of a telescope, a kind of cinematic time capsule. It should be shown in all high school classes. Not only as a picture of historical reality but as a splendid example of propaganda. The Russians were producing similar films at the same time. (They were shown in Europe but never in the US.) During and preceding the war, Germany made the same kind of movies. All of them clearly identified the good guys and the bad guys, just like in a John Wayne Western from the 30s. Thinking was treated as an irritant, whereas, as Charles Sanders Peirce observed, "belief is thought at rest."
This film incorporates many of the more important issues, at least as we perceived and interpreted those issues at the time. The in conflict in occupied Austria is personalized in the atheistic military sensibilities of Walter Pidgeon, the simple faith of Mother Superior Ethel Barrymore, and the sneering treachery of Louis Calhern as Colonel Piniev. To maintain the interest of those who are bored by politics, there is the tragic romance between British officer Peter Lawford and the yummy displaced person Janet Leigh. The conflict boils down to what should be done with Leigh. The orders are to repatriate her and turn her over to the Soviet Union.
There is a masterful film out there covering some of these issues. That film is called "The Third Man." This one is full of stereotypes involving politics, religion, and love. Ho hum.
Brothers and sisters, this is really preachy. The Russians show no humanity, no remorse. The British sometimes bumble but play fair and are earnest about their humanitarianism. They're gently guided in the right direction by the quiet and elliptical remarks of the lovable old Mother Superior. The conflicts are real enough. Who wanted to live in the USSR under the brutal regime of Stalin? But there are ideological arguments between Pidgeon and Calhern, the latter sounding like a wind-up mannequin programmed to spout Marxism for Dummies.
It has three things going for it. Nice shots of a C 47 taking off and landing, the perky presence of Angela Lansbury, and it serves as a peek into the past, like looking through the wrong end of a telescope, a kind of cinematic time capsule. It should be shown in all high school classes. Not only as a picture of historical reality but as a splendid example of propaganda. The Russians were producing similar films at the same time. (They were shown in Europe but never in the US.) During and preceding the war, Germany made the same kind of movies. All of them clearly identified the good guys and the bad guys, just like in a John Wayne Western from the 30s. Thinking was treated as an irritant, whereas, as Charles Sanders Peirce observed, "belief is thought at rest."