Ivan Jandl plays Karel Malik, a young Czech boy who survived the Auschwitz death camp and now that it's 1946 is being transported with lots of other children to UN refugee camps. He's particularly afraid of people in uniform, so he flees at the first opportunity, eventually being discovered by GI Montgomery Clift. Meanwhile, Mrs. Malik (Jarmila Novotná) is going from one refugee camp to the next searching for her son, who she just knows is still alive. Of course, the audience knows that he is alive too.
The movie is filled with excellent performances, by Jandl, Clift, and Aline MacMahon as a refugee camp administrator. Even Wendell Corey acquits himself well as Clift's friend and the guy billeting him. The movie also used authentic locations in the American sector of occupied Germany for authenticity.
If the movie has one problem, it's that we know from pretty early on that mother and son are going to wind up together at the end. If the studio had tried to have an ending that didn't have mother and son reunited, there would have been riots. But that's a very minor flaw.
The movie is filled with excellent performances, by Jandl, Clift, and Aline MacMahon as a refugee camp administrator. Even Wendell Corey acquits himself well as Clift's friend and the guy billeting him. The movie also used authentic locations in the American sector of occupied Germany for authenticity.
If the movie has one problem, it's that we know from pretty early on that mother and son are going to wind up together at the end. If the studio had tried to have an ending that didn't have mother and son reunited, there would have been riots. But that's a very minor flaw.