I've been catching up on Monty Clift movies. He was such a huge presence in movies of the 50s, but I'd seen relatively few. The man is a real actor. He had qualities of a James Dean or a Marlon Brando, but seemed much more intelligent. It's harder to do an impersonation of Monty because he was someone who truly changed for every part. The Search is one of his earliest films, and it's a sentimental piece of post-war propaganda, but both he and his young co-star are believable and touching. It has parts that are hard to believe, like when a young mute Czech boy learns good English in about 2 weeks, and when a picture of a big doggie and her pup make him realize what a "mother" is, and that he misses his (after one brief scene, his father and sister are never seen or even mentioned again). But it's an engrossing film made more so by the real backdrop of post-war German ruins. See it for the early Monty.
Review of The Search
