Strong and Moving!

Fantastic!

Admirable film.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The production values and care of an MGM factory style motion picture is evident in the "big picture" called "The Red Danube". It was a failure back in 1949, and when I finally caught it at a Mid-Manhattan Library screening the pre-show poll of the audience of 80-plus revealed not a single fan had ever seen it before.It had no significant afterlife, though Ted Turner's buying MGM meant some TV exposure plus a 2012 WB archive DVD issuance, but surprisingly the movie's themes and contents are still highly relevant nearly 70 years later.Set in 1946 in Rome and Vienna, it concerns the displaced persons issue that was so significant after WW II, and treated in several classic films, notably Geza Von Radvanyi's neo-realist "Women Without Names" made a year after this movie and released in America on the art-house circuit by trailblazer Ilya Lopert. A terrific cast is headed by legends Walter Pidgeon, as a cynical British colonel stuck with the unsavory assignment of turning over "subsersives" to the Russians for shipping off to Siberia, and Ethel Barrymore as a mother superior at the convent where Pidgeon & staff are billeted in Vienna. They have an ongoing dialectical battle of words, as her deep Catholic faith is played off of Pidgeon's depressive lack of any moral compass, down in the dumps since the death in the war of his son.Two hour movie is separated into two distinct parts: the first half after some comic relief (Angela Lansbury as Pidgeon's assistant is terrific in adding warmth and Eve Arden style humor to the picture) settles into a glossy love story of officer Peter Lawford, as dashing as they come, falling in love with a beautiful Russian ballerina on the lam but due for deportation, played empathetically by Janet Leigh. Leigh even gets to show impressive dancing skills in a ballet class rehearsal, typical of the MGM class approach to an A picture.Second half broadens the scope of the movie's themes, as Barrymore cleverly manipulates Pidgeon and the dire situation, even to get him to take her against orders on a trip to Rome so she can meet with the pope, all in the cause of saving the hapless refugees caught between lily- livered allies (represented by Pidgeon and his fellow Brits) and the duplicitous and patently evil Soviet regime. The film makes it points vividly against the authoritarianism and sneaky tactics of the Russkies, without lapsing into the blatant propaganda of the usual Hollywood Cold War movie, for example "My Son John", which starred Helen Hayes in a role Barrymore might have played (but it was a Paramount, not MGM, release). George Sidney's direction is impressive, especially when he inserts tight close-ups of romantic Leigh and Lawford at key moments, looking as lustrous as silent era shots and having as much impact. I kept trying to guess how the ending would turn out -would it be the usual and derided "Hollywood Ending" or a more trenchant one given the dead-serious subject matter. The last couple of reels verge on camp, but both scripters and Sidney are to be commended for such clever audience manipulation as to deliver laughs and tears on cue.Biggest surprise, beyond the clear relevance today of the Refugees problem, was an uncanny and comical reference to a specifically 2017 issue. The screenplay has many colloquial expressions as tag lines, notably an American phrase "like nobody's business", as well as the cutesy singing of Row, Row, Row Your Boat in many scenes, that pay off with a most amusing Barrymore/Pidgeon encounter. She compliments him, calling him a tramp, then correcting her English, "you're a Trump!". I wasn't familiar with the British colloquial term, which has other meanings in Blighty referring to farting, but here it occurs right after Pidgeon's character has been revealed to be easily duped by the Russians, led by imperious Louis Calhern as his colonel counterpart for the USSR. The relevance to President Trump's very odd taking everything President Putin says as truth and his incessant cozying up to the Russians is inescapable and amusing - Black humor in our current time of Trumpian woe.

The story take place in 1946 post-war Vienna when the city was divided into allied sectors, including British and Soviet sectors. World War II was over, but the Cold War between the Western Democracies and Communist Russia had begun. The issue of repatriation of citizens (in the sectors) to their respective countries is the main issue that contributes to this very good movie.A delegation of British officers is sent to Vienna to handle this assignment and occupy Vienna during this transition period from war time to peace time. The delegation is headed up by Col. Nicobar "Hooky' (Walter Pidgeon) who had lost his arm in World War I. Other delegation members include Marjor McPhimister "Twingo" (Peter Lawford) and Audrey Quail (Angela Lansbury). When they arrive in Vienna, they are billeted in a Catholic Church headed by the Mother Superior, "Mother Auxilia" (Ethel Barrymore). Besides housing nuns, this Catholic Church also serves as a sanctuary for a Russian ballet dancer, Olga Alexandrova (Janet Leigh), who disguises herself as a nun, (aka Maria Buhlen), so that she can escape being repatriated with Russia. When the Russian Army Colonel Piniev "Pinhead" (Louis Calhern) demands to search the church for his missing Russian ballerina, Mother Auxilia allows it but is mum on anything that is not a direct question.The subject of former war allies—now post-war enemies--occupying post- war Vienna sets up many conflicts that go beyond direct orders to repatriate citizens to countries of their origin. There are duties, and then there are moral issues involved too. Clearly Maira Buhlen does not want to return to Russia. So, what happens when Hooky's military orders tangle with Mother Auxilia's moral duties? As far as I can tell, the Lawford ("Twingo") and Lansbury (Quail) characters seem to be just part of a love triangle, with "Twingo" in love with Leigh (as Buhlen) and Quail suffering from the unrequited love of "Twingo."This is a great story with interesting conflicts on several levels: romantic, duty, and spiritual to name but three.

First, I was amazed a film like this could be made in International Socialist (Communist) infested Hollywood in the late 1940's. Read the book "Hollywood Party" by Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley. A huge proportion of Hollywood's behind the scenes employees (not the stars) took their marching orders from Moscow. This was at the same time the studio heads were in cahoots with the National Socialists of Germany in making sure nothing bad was said about Herr Hitler.The funny part was the Ribbentrop/Molotov Non-aggression Pact where the Nazis and the Communists agreed to carve up Poland. Up until then the Hollywood myrmidons blindly followed the anti-Fascist line of Stalin. Stalin needed a word to describe his internal enemies so he picked "Fascist". I mean the loyal Communist apparatchiks he executed by the thousands were suddenly 'Fascist'? The word stuck both in the UUSR and the US and the blind left today who won't read history still use this epithet against everyone they disagree with, not remotely knowing the word's true meaning. Mussolini of course came from a famous Socialist family and was the editor of Italy's leading Socialist publication: "Avante". Fascism, Nazism, Communism -- all repressive Socialist political systems. Anyway, the hard leftists in Hollywood after denouncing Nazis and Fascists for a decade now had to praise them to the sky by orders from Stalin. Being the rotten people they were, they turned on a dime without even blinking - like Orcs.Why does this all matter? Well, Walter Pidgeon's character like 99% of Allied soldiers had little clue about the horrible nature of Communism given the propaganda about Uncle Joe Stalin being our ally. Pidgeon gets a first hand glimpse of the forced repatriation of USSR dissidents when the first man he tries to turn over, an elderly gentleman, requests that he pack a few things, walks into the next room and you hear an instantaneous gunshot - he had blown his brains out. Pidgeon takes his orders in turning over these poor people waiting to be executed or put in the Gulag back in the "Workers Paradise" but finally realizes with the help of Ethel Barrymore's Character - Mother Superior - that he is committing an awful crime against humanity and fights back. Just watch the rest of the movie as it plays out.If you want to learn more about the Allied treachery, read "Operation Keelhaul" by Julius Epstein.Hollywood is pretty craven - imagine a Spielberg type being given this script - no way he would make this film. He would never turn on his ideological masters. The enemy in Hollywood will always be Nazis and Fascists, the ideological allies of the Communists. Muslim terrorists could blow up Hollywood and the first script about that event would have the Muslims being replaced by the Waffen SS without even the slightest hesitation.

A very good piece of propaganda may best describe this 1949 film dealing with repatriation of people after World War 11.Walter Pidgeon stars as the non-believer assigned to Rome and Vienna after the war. There he encounters the Mother Superior, played so well by Ethel Barrymore.The story concerns itself with Maria Buhlen- a young and wide-eyed Janet Leigh, who has been living in Austria, but since she is a Russian citizen, she must return to the Soviet Union. Even as a ballerina, her fate will be sealed there. Maria manages to escape before being turned in by the British who are looking to appease the Soviets. Of course, legislation is pending in the U.N. that would help repatriates such as Maria.Love blossoms along the way between Maria and an army man, Peter Lawford. Lawford, other than making love to Ms. Buhlen, has little to do here. Love seems to conquer all until tragedy intervenes.The film succeeds in showing the deprivation and fear of such people caught up by world politics. That little Austrian girl will just tug at your heart.The heavy here is Louis Calhern. He turns in a fine performance as a Russian soldier who goes by the book. He goes after Maria Buhlen with a vengeance.Mother Superior? Maria? Hiding Maria? I thought I was back in "The Sound of Music" momentarily but this film is worthwhile and should be seen.