The Search

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The Search
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Produced by Lazar Wechsler
Written by Richard Schweizer (also story)
David Wechsler (also story)
Paul Jarrico
Montgomery Clift
Betty Smith
Starring Montgomery Clift
Aline MacMahon
Jarmila Novotna
Wendell Corey
Ivan Jandl
Music by Robert Blum
Cinematography Emil Berna
Editing by Hermann Haller
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) March 23, 1948
Running time 105 minutes
Language English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile
For other uses, see The Search (disambiguation).

The Search is a 1948 film directed by Fred Zinnemann which tells the story of a young Auschwitz survivor and his mother who search for each other across post-World War II Europe. It stars Montgomery Clift, Ivan Jandl, Jarmila Novotna and Aline MacMahon.

One oft cited feature of this film is that many of the scenes were shot amidst the actual ruins of post-war German cities, namely Ingolstadt, Nuremberg, and Würzburg.[1]

Contents

[edit] Plot

The film begins in documentary style at a railway station. Trains bring homeless children (Displaced Persons or DPs), who are taken by Mrs. Murray (Aline MacMahon) and other United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNNRA) workers to a nearby transit camp, where they are fed and cared for.

The next morning, the children are interviewed by UNNRA officials to try to identify them and reunite them if possible with their families. One boy responds to all questions with, “Ich weiß nicht” (“I don’t know”). The boy is Karel (Ivan Jandl). He grew up in a well-to-do Czech family. The Nazis had deported his sister and doctor father, while the boy and mother were sent to a Nazi concentration camp. They eventually became separated. After the war, Karel survived by scavenging for food with other homeless children.

The next day, the children are split up into groups and loaded into trucks and ambulances to be transferred to other camps. The children in Karel's group are at first terrified because the Nazis often used ambulances to gas victims, but are eventually coaxed into the vehicle. During the trip, the smell of exhaust fumes causes the children to fear they are being gassed. They panic; Karel's friend Raoul manages to open the back door of the ambulance, and the children scatter in all directions. Karel and Raoul are chased by two of the UNRRA men. The boys try to swim across a river. Raoul drowns, but Karel survives by hiding in the reeds near the shoreline.

Later, Karel encounters an American army engineer, Steve (Montgomery Clift), who takes care of him. He starts teaching the boy English. Because Karel cannot speak at first, Steve names him Jim.

Once Jim feels more secure, he starts to remember his mother and the last time he saw her, near a fence in the concentration camp. He runs away one evening thinking the fence is nearby. Jim finds a fence at a factory, but cannot find his mother among the workers going home.

Steve eventually finds Jim and tells him that his mother is dead (Steve has reason to believe she had been gassed) so he will stop searching for her. He also informs Jim that he is going to try to adopt him and take him to America to start a new life there.

As it turns out, Karel's mother, Mrs. Malik (Jarmila Novotna) is not dead. In a parallel story, she has been searching for her son. She begins working for Mrs. Murray at the same UNRRA camp where her son had been processed. After a while though, she resigns to resume her forlorn search for Karel.

That same day, Steve leaves the boy at the UNRRA camp because he has a job waiting for him in America. He hopes to send for the boy once the paperwork is completed. Mrs. Murray remembers the boy from when he was there before; she begins to suspect that Jim is Mrs. Malik’s son. She hurries to the train station to bring Mrs. Malik back, but is too late. The train has already left. Then, she sees Mrs. Malik on the train platform; she had changed her mind and decided to stay. Mrs. Murray arranges for her to greet the newest group of children.

The film ends with Jim joining the group. Mrs. Malik begins to organize the children and bids them to follow her. Jim walks past without recognizing her. Mrs. Malik almost makes the same mistake, but then turns and calls, “Karel!” and the boy and his mother are reunited.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] Academy Awards

[edit] Wins

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Other

[edit] Wins

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Reception

Bosley Crowther of the The New York Times praised it highly, calling it, "an absorbing and gratifying emotional drama of the highest sort".[2] Crowther thought that Clift got "precisely the right combination of intensity and casualness into the role".[2] Clint Eastwood singled out Clift's performance as the one that had the greatest influence on his own acting career.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Filming locations for The Search (1948). www.imdb.com.
  2. ^ a b Bosley Crowther (March 24, 1948). The Search. The New York Times (movies.nytimes.com). Retrieved on 2008-04-26.
  3. ^ Michael Costello. All Movie Guide Review. All Movie Guide. Retrieved on 2008-04-26.

[edit] External links

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