Review: The Search

A lost 9 year-old boy (Ivan Jandl) in post-WWII Berlin looks to be reunited with his mother, after surviving the horrors of Auschwitz. Montgomery Clift plays Steve, an American army engineer who takes the boy in and tries to find out more about him, though neither speaks the other’s language. Wendell Corey is Steve’s Army buddy.

 

Seemingly forgotten, but highly effective 1948 Fred Zinnemann (“From Here to Eternity”, “High Noon”, “The Sundowners”, “A Man for All Seasons”) story of a little lost boy immediately post-WWII. Shifts in tone and style might throw people off a bit here, and the intermittent narration won’t be to all tastes. Some of it plays rather like a mature, quite harrowing docudrama, whilst at other times it is rather syrupy I suppose. However, for 1948 Hollywood, I’d say this was pretty damn gritty and stark, and overall very mature stuff. I was gripped from beginning to end especially since it was telling a part of the story of WWII that isn’t often covered in cinema. I’m sure it was hard enough for adult survivors of WWII concentration camps, but I can’t remotely imagine how hard it would be for child survivors to re-adjust after the war. How on Earth do you learn to trust another human being again after that horrific experience?

 

A completely unaffected Ivan Jandl won a special Oscar for his absolutely terrific performance in what is the lead role. There’s no Jackie Coogan affected cuteness or Mickey Rooney showbiz pizzazz about him. It’s really quite remarkable, especially considering he was learning his lines phonetically in a language he didn’t speak (though his dialogue is mostly confined to the film’s second half). Once Montgomery Clift and Wendell Corey enter the film and take the boy in, the film becomes a somewhat more conventional Hollywood outing and less docudrama. This was Clift’s big screen debut, the same year he’d make “Red River”, and it’s interesting to watch a young and quite natural Clift on screen. Earning an Oscar nomination right off the bat, he’s immensely likeable as the soldier temporarily looking after the kid. Clift also has the important task of making up for Jandl’s relatively quiet, incommunicative performance, at least at first. There’s also a rock-solid supporting performance by weary-looking Aline MacMahon as a UN worker who looks after displaced persons after the war. Jarmila Novotna is also affecting in a rather sad performance as the boy’s poor mother, desperate to find him.

 

A great and unusually harrowing story for the 1940s, this post-WWII story is thoroughly engrossing and rather sweet, sad, and affecting too. Terrific performances, excellent gritty B&W cinematography by Emil Berna using some pretty decrepit, bombed-out German location shooting. Must-see stuff. The screenplay is by Swiss duo Richard Schweizer (who co-wrote a Swiss version of “Heidi”) and David Wechsler, with additional dialogue by Paul Jarrico (“The White Tower”).

 

Rating: A-

 

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