User Reviews

Perhaps there are some actresses out there who look at films such as "Spartacus" and "Ben-Hur" and think, "Gee, why can't I ever be cast in a role like that?" Ms. Wynter is probably not one of them! Though this isn't nearly in the league of those epics, one would be hard-pressed to find a more eventful, episodic, put-upon female role to play, outside of Scarlett O'Hara or Cleopatra. She's a pretty, young, German student, living with her father in a war-torn house who is stunned to find an escaped American POW (Ferrer) hiding there. Mostly out of consideration for her compassionate father, she agrees to help hide Ferrer, never knowing how this one deed of kindness will come back to fulfill her life in a couple of very long months. Wynter goes through a whirlwind of circumstances including near-starvation, forced hiding, attempted rape, sexual blackmail, hard labor, coerced (almost) prostitution and sideshow-like performing until she is reunited with Ferrer, who now has the ability to improve her lot in life. Even he selflessly reintroduces her to her long-lost fiancé rather than claim her as his own by trying to pretend the man can't be located. Then just when she thinks she can at last find happiness, yet another obstacle presents itself. Wynter gives an impressively sensitive and stalwart performance here. Her usual raven hair is lightened, giving her a slightly more vulnerable appearance (compared to her later white-streaked, brunette, brittle, harpy character in "Airport".) She's given a great deal to contend with and she handles it well, often looking quite lovely in the pencil-thin skirts and attractive blouses her character sports. Ferrer delivers a kind and very caring performance, making him the man the audience knows Wynter should be with, long before the thought crosses her own mind. Michaels colors things up as a booze-loving piano player who entertains the troops to make ends meet. Other cast members include Berghof as Wynter's generous distant cousin, Hayes as an officious, distaff fellow officer of Ferrer's, Bikel as a brooding, yet boisterous Russian colonel, Dantine as Wynter's wayward fiancé and Van Rooten and Ebinger as two selfish and opportunistic boarders at Wynter's cousin's house. Rounding out the large supporting cast are Triesault as Wynter's father, Kruschen as a slimy Russian sergeant and Edwards as a considerate American corporal who aids Wynter more than once. The film is to be commended for using many authentically Eastern European actors in the cast, though Michaels tends to stick out as a result and Ebinger is horrendously dubbed by a preposterous voice double. Many of the coincidences of the script and now-corny aspects of the story detract from the overall effect of the film, but it benefits from location scenery and the committed performances provided by the well-chosen cast. Though many of the more seedy elements of the narrative are only hinted at or glimpsed, due to the censorial restraints of the time, the film nonetheless contains more than a few striking and suspenseful sequences.

A simply marvelous film made in 1958 dealing with post-war Germany.

Actress Dana Wynter delivers a marvelous performance as Erica. What she has to endure here is absolutely memorable. Both Erica and her father shield an escaped American prisoner of war (Mel Ferrer) in their Cologne home towards the end of the war. Right after he leaves, her father is killed in a bombing and she takes refuge with a recently widowed cousin who has 2 very nasty people working for him. When the cousin is killed trying to protect Erica from drunken Russian soldiers, she escapes prison from Col. Dmitri, wonderfully played by Theodore Bikel. Bikel seemed to have mastered the Russian army role. He would repeat that character in a comical way 8 years later in "The Russians are Coming, The Russians Are Coming." Of course, Dmitri wants sexual favors for saving Erica and when he proposes, she escapes to the west. By coincidence, she meets up with Mel Ferrer, the guy she and dad had sheltered. He is now a big-wig in the American army.

Unfortunately, before this, she had met up with that nasty couple from her cousin's house. They are now in the game of prostitution and they sign her up. Realizing what's going on, she runs away but her name is on the prostitution list throughout Germany.

Her encountering with her former German fiancé is memorable. Helmut Dantine plays the part so well in a one well defined scene.

The ending is absolutely satisfying. This is a well-done film by director Henry Koster. It tells of citizens of a defeated country trying to make it in a new world.

I am attracted to movies set in post WWII Europe and always a sucker for a good love story. And this one delivers on both counts.

From the first moment she appears on screen Dana Wynters is captivating and gives a sensitive performance as a young and very beautiful German girl trying hard to survive a horrible time in the closing weeks of WWII after losing her family members and home to the allied bombing. Through perseverance and happenstance she manages to emerge intact and reconnect with an American soldier that she and her father had helped out once as an escaped POW.

The cinematography is wonderful and authentic and shows scenes of utter devastation amidst the beauty of the German architecture, for example, the scene near the Cathedral of Cologne.

My favorite scene is one where the characters were taking a boat trip down the Rhine River. The scenery is dazzling as they make way past the castles and vineyards, and especially as they pass the famous Loreleis with the sirens (actually German children) singing.

Given the harsh reality of this time in history and the context, the movie avoided being particularly brutal and merely hinted at the horrors of what so many Germans went through at the end of the war. I appreciate the way this movie humanized the people of both sides.

Mel Ferrer gives a solid performance as the friendly, informal American G.I. Joe. Many of the actors are European which really makes the movie better and more authentic. I would highly recommend this one to anybody and would watch it again any time just to see Dana Wynter's captivating beauty again. She looks very beguiling as a brunette and has a nice figure which looks great in those German costumes.