One striking thing about "The Search" is a cast that includes European refugees as actors who play exceptional roles. Another is the filming on site that shows the lasting devastation two years beyond the end of WW II. This is a moving story of broken families, orphaned children and "lost" parents at war's end. Jamila Novotna as Mrs. Malik, and young Ivan Jandl as Karel Malik (aka, Jimmy) win our hearts in their roles. Montgomery Clift did very well in one of his first leading roles in films, playing Ralph Stevenson. Wendell Corey was quite good as Jerry Fisher, and Aline MacMahon was excellent as Mrs. Murray.
A number of good reviews discuss the plot, actors and characters. So, I'll just give a little more detail from my later experience and some research on the post-war recovery and displaced persons (DPs) efforts.
WWII claimed about 85 million lives, with 45 million in the European Theater. Of those, nearly two-thirds were civilians. Many of these – including six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, and millions of P.O.W.s, died in concentration camps. Most European families lost someone in the war. Up to 20 million people were displaced at war's end. Most came from Nazi concentration camps and forced labor camps. They mostly were from eastern and central Europe. But, many German children were displaced also, having lost their parents in the war.
The war had left a continent numb. The first efforts of refugees were to find lost loved ones. The work forces were decimated by the war. Cities and towns were leveled across much of Europe. Few plants were left to produce the materials, supplies and equipment needed to rebuild. The Allies helped with all of this, but they had much rebuilding to do on their own. It would take a long time for Europe to recover.
I served in the U.S. Army in Germany – then West Germany, during the Cold War. When I arrived at Mainz in April 1962, there were still vestiges of the war. The new bridge across the Rhine River had just been opened. Until then, the crossing was on a fortified pontoon bridge built in 1945 by engineers of Gen. George Patton's Third Army. It was still there in 1962. Seventeen years after my dad had served on the battlefields of Europe, the land still showed scars from the war.
On a trip to Berlin in 1964, an Army friend and I toured East Berlin. We saw the facade of Friedrichstrasse that the East Germans had built. Behind the pretty fronts of buildings on that street, we saw the remains of blocks of bombed out buildings. During the first decades of the Cold War, the communist government of East Germany had done very little to rebuild much of East Berlin that the Soviets occupied.
This film gives us a good look at the relief effort that took place at the end of the war. The Allies created the United Nations in 1945. The Marshall Plan for U.S. aid to Europe would be in place in April, 1948. The first task of the U.N. was to set up the U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). This film shows the early work of that group. On Oct. 1, 1945, UNRRA took over all the operations of DPs in Europe. The Army continued to help with transportation, supplies, security and other aid. The earliest staff people of UNRRA and the other U.N. recovery efforts came from the ranks of the Allies. American servicemen volunteered to stay and help start the recovery. They and new troops were transferred to the U.N. forces. They kept their respective uniforms but with new insignia and patches to identify them. Thus, we see the people in this film running the DP camps and programs, including the interpreters. There are no ranks shown or used by the Americans in this film. And, they are all wearing Army dress uniforms – not combat fatigues.
So the reviewer who referred to Clift's role as an Army private got it wrong. Privates wouldn't have jeeps to drive around in, and two enlisted men would not have a nice house to share. Nor would the Army send an enlisted man's family over to Germany to live with him during that time. No, Ralph and Jerry are a couple of former GIs who have transferred into the U.N. relief forces. They are now more like civilians in uniform. Ralph has what looks very much like a Combat Infantryman Badge on his uniform – which says that he had fought in the war. Otherwise, the only recognizable marking on their uniforms is a circular shoulder patch that resembles the U.N. symbol. So, these two Americans were probably officers or NCOs during the war, and they volunteered to stay on to help start the recovery effort. They may have been engineers. In one scene, we see a good sized model of a bridge. Ralph tells Jimmy that he built that bridge. It was probably a model of one he had actually helped design or build.
This is a wonderful film and a must for any library of World War II. It is a great account of the tragedy of human loss from war. And it shows us the plight of DPs, the early efforts to help them – especially the children, and the first people among the Allies who served and helped in the clean-up and rebuilding of war-ravaged Europe.
A number of good reviews discuss the plot, actors and characters. So, I'll just give a little more detail from my later experience and some research on the post-war recovery and displaced persons (DPs) efforts.
WWII claimed about 85 million lives, with 45 million in the European Theater. Of those, nearly two-thirds were civilians. Many of these – including six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, and millions of P.O.W.s, died in concentration camps. Most European families lost someone in the war. Up to 20 million people were displaced at war's end. Most came from Nazi concentration camps and forced labor camps. They mostly were from eastern and central Europe. But, many German children were displaced also, having lost their parents in the war.
The war had left a continent numb. The first efforts of refugees were to find lost loved ones. The work forces were decimated by the war. Cities and towns were leveled across much of Europe. Few plants were left to produce the materials, supplies and equipment needed to rebuild. The Allies helped with all of this, but they had much rebuilding to do on their own. It would take a long time for Europe to recover.
I served in the U.S. Army in Germany – then West Germany, during the Cold War. When I arrived at Mainz in April 1962, there were still vestiges of the war. The new bridge across the Rhine River had just been opened. Until then, the crossing was on a fortified pontoon bridge built in 1945 by engineers of Gen. George Patton's Third Army. It was still there in 1962. Seventeen years after my dad had served on the battlefields of Europe, the land still showed scars from the war.
On a trip to Berlin in 1964, an Army friend and I toured East Berlin. We saw the facade of Friedrichstrasse that the East Germans had built. Behind the pretty fronts of buildings on that street, we saw the remains of blocks of bombed out buildings. During the first decades of the Cold War, the communist government of East Germany had done very little to rebuild much of East Berlin that the Soviets occupied.
This film gives us a good look at the relief effort that took place at the end of the war. The Allies created the United Nations in 1945. The Marshall Plan for U.S. aid to Europe would be in place in April, 1948. The first task of the U.N. was to set up the U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). This film shows the early work of that group. On Oct. 1, 1945, UNRRA took over all the operations of DPs in Europe. The Army continued to help with transportation, supplies, security and other aid. The earliest staff people of UNRRA and the other U.N. recovery efforts came from the ranks of the Allies. American servicemen volunteered to stay and help start the recovery. They and new troops were transferred to the U.N. forces. They kept their respective uniforms but with new insignia and patches to identify them. Thus, we see the people in this film running the DP camps and programs, including the interpreters. There are no ranks shown or used by the Americans in this film. And, they are all wearing Army dress uniforms – not combat fatigues.
So the reviewer who referred to Clift's role as an Army private got it wrong. Privates wouldn't have jeeps to drive around in, and two enlisted men would not have a nice house to share. Nor would the Army send an enlisted man's family over to Germany to live with him during that time. No, Ralph and Jerry are a couple of former GIs who have transferred into the U.N. relief forces. They are now more like civilians in uniform. Ralph has what looks very much like a Combat Infantryman Badge on his uniform – which says that he had fought in the war. Otherwise, the only recognizable marking on their uniforms is a circular shoulder patch that resembles the U.N. symbol. So, these two Americans were probably officers or NCOs during the war, and they volunteered to stay on to help start the recovery effort. They may have been engineers. In one scene, we see a good sized model of a bridge. Ralph tells Jimmy that he built that bridge. It was probably a model of one he had actually helped design or build.
This is a wonderful film and a must for any library of World War II. It is a great account of the tragedy of human loss from war. And it shows us the plight of DPs, the early efforts to help them – especially the children, and the first people among the Allies who served and helped in the clean-up and rebuilding of war-ravaged Europe.