A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO DIE Movie Review

1958 Douglas Sirk

Many contemporary viewers will have a hard time separating the substance of this romance from its style. In many ways, the film looks like a typical mid-'50s melodrama. Director Douglas Sirk was responsible for some of the better Rock Hudson pictures, and he gives the action a polished Hollywood sheen that's really at odds with the story. Based on a novel by Eric Maria Remarque (who appears in a small but crucial role), it's really a glossy companion piece to All Quiet on the Western Front.

It begins on the Russian Front, where Wehrmacht soldier Ernst Graeber (John Gavin) is waiting without much hope for his furlough to come through. A veteran of campaigns in France and North Africa, he's due for some time off. His depleted and dispirited squad has been reduced to reburying corpses that rise from shallow graves in the spring thaw. And Steinbrenner (Bengt Lindstrom), the one fanatical Nazi in the group, demands that they execute any civilians they encounter because they might be guerrillas. When the orders for Ernst's leave miraculously appear, he heads to Germany for the first time in years, and finds that his country and his nameless hometown are suffering.

Officials give returning soldiers boxes of fruit to fool citizens into thinking that things aren't so bad on the front, while bombing raids have reduced blocks of apartments to rubble. The paranoia of National Socialism has made everyone suspicious of everyone else. Ernst soon finds that Oscar (Thayer David), an underachieving old friend from high school, has risen to a position of such importance within the party that he can surround himself with every imaginable luxury while others sleep in the streets. The single bright spot is Elizabeth (Lilo Pulver), the daughter of his family's doctor. They fall in love with a completely believable suddenness, given the madness of their world.

Their relationship is the central thread in an episodic plot that gradually, steadily reveals the Kafkaesque horrors of fascism. Ernst, basically a decent man who believes that he is doing the right things, comes to understand that he has become part of something horrible. The film tries to decipher the degrees of complicity and responsibility of all Germans during those years, from the woman who works in a uniform factory, to the soldier who takes part in a firing squad, to the Gestapo officer who gleefully demonstrates how he burns concentration camp prisoners.

The casting is unusually strong and creative. Jock Mahoney, Don DeFore, and Keenan Wynn are very good as fellow soldiers. Jim Hutton (listed as Dana Hutton) makes a distinct impression in a small role, and in an even smaller one, Klaus Kinski gives a preview of the singular weirdness that would mark his career. Paul Frees, who provides several voices, is familiar to any fan of European films. Author Remarque's presence is more than a deferential cameo, too. His role as a quietly heroic professor provides the only real note of hope in a story that's stripped of all sugar-coating.

The leads are excellent, too. Though Gavin has a reputation as a wooden, pretty actor, he makes Ernst a sympathetic hero. Lilo Pulver's determined, often angry performance probably plays better now than it did in 1958. They're not going to make anyone forget Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca, but their characters have depth and emotional realism that's not often associated with films of the period.

It's true that the film does go on a little too long, and it lacks subtlety, but it deserves a better reputation than it has. Given the changes in cinematic conventions and audience expectations, the story should be a prime candidate for a remake.

Cast: John Gavin (Ernst Graeber), Lilo (Liselotte) Pulver (Elizabeth Kruse), Jock Mahoney (Immerman), Keenan Wynn (Reuter), Klaus Kinski (Gestapo Lieutenant), Don DeFore (Hermann Boettcher), Thayer David (Oscar Binding), Dieter Borsche (Capt. Rahe), Erich Maria Remarque (Prof. Pohlmann), Barbara Rutting (Woman guerilla), Charles Regnier (Joseph), Dorothea Wieck (Frau Lieser), Kurt Meisel (Heini), Clancy Cooper (Sauer), John van Dreelen (Political officer), Dana J. [Jim] Hutton (Hirschland), Bengt Lindstrom (Steinbrenner); Written by: Orin Jannings; Cinematography by: Russell Metty; Music by: Miklos Rozsa. Producer: U-I, Robert Arthur. Awards: Nominations: Academy Awards ‘58: Best Sound. Running Time: 133 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta.