Here's a sharp-focus, widescreen black & white thriller from 1965. If you're a fan of "Mirage," "My Blood Runs Cold," "Two on a Guillotine," etc., you'll understand and won't be disappointed. Otherwise, things are a bit precarious. Though the film takes place in 1945, clothes and hairstyles are strictly 1965. The low budget is painfully obvious, the studio-bound sets of MGM's British Borehamwood Studios are poor stand-ins for Paris. Ingrid Thulin and Maximilian Schell give fine performances. Samantha Eggar looks beautiful but lacks depth. Director J. Lee Thompson did a fine job with the original 1962 "Cape Fear," a tense drama that holds up well. "Return From the Ashes" just isn't as suspenseful or clever as it tries to be. Plus, its casual handling of the sensitive subject of a Holocaust survivor is clumsy. The film, however, is entertaining nonetheless.
Review of Return from the Ashes
