Not your typical Douglas Sirk subject matter here, at least on the face of it. Based on a book by celebrated novelist Erich Maria Remarque, best known for "All Quiet On The Western Front", it uncommonly takes as its subject a German soldier granted leave from the Russian Front.
The film commences with three almost immediately jolting scenes, firstly when the German regiment now retreating surrendered territory in the dead of winter, come across a hand protruding from the frozen ice and then learn it belongs to a former colleague. Soon afterwards, we see members of the same troop "volunteered" to execute by firing squad four Russian civilians, one of them a woman, after first making them dig their own graves. This proves to be too much for the already shredded nerves of one of the young participants, who soon afterwards takes his own life. All this in the first 20 minutes.
After that however it does settle to recognisable Sirk territory as the story concentrates on young German soldier John Gavin, who to his own surprise is granted a furlough which he uses to try to return to his parents' house only to find they have left and the house itself is now bombed to the ground. What's immediately apparent once he's back home is the town civilians' complete indifference to the returning front-line soldier. No hero to them, indeed he's accused of having it easy compared to the almost daily Allied bombing barrage they're enduring.
One plus for him however is that in his search he meets and quickly falls in love with the pretty daughter of his parents' doctor. They decide to marry and to complete their happiness all they need to do it seems is find their respective sets of parents, see out the war and live happily ever after, but remembering the M.O.'s of both Sirk and Remarque, plus there's a big clue in the film title, their stories don't end happily and in fact the climax is a shockingly brutal moment reminiscent of those initial three scenes. Thus the film rams home its point about the futility of war effectively making the point that almost nothing good can come from it.
Master cinematographer Russell Metty, under Sirk's direction, shows himself equally capable of filming war-weary soldiers, battlefields and ruined houses as rich socialites in their grand houses in the United States. That said, it is disconcerting to hear everyone, Germans and Russians alike, speaking in crystal-clear American accents.
Leads John Gavin and Liselotte Pulver make for an attractive couple whose love story blossoms against the odds and there's a notable appearance by author Remarque himself in a prominent part as a dissenting doctor. Gavin is obviously playing the type of role that Rock Hudson would normally fulfil for Sirk, but I can understand, for reasons of veracity and credibility, why the lesser-known Gavin got the part, although his inexperience does I think show through at times.
This is a film where Sirk, more famous for his lush romantic contemporary melodramas gets his hands somewhat dirtier. There's earthy barrack-room humour amongst the serving soldiers, extreme cruelty as demonstrated by the drunken piano-playing Gestapo commandant describing his layer-cake method of mass-killing, depictions of prostitutes and call girls and in that final sequence, blind patriotism which in time of war, ruthlessly fails to acknowledge a life-saving kindness granted to it.
A bleak but powerful film then, with a strong anti-war message, effectively but still stylishly directed by Sirk, the better for setting its main characters on the other side of the divide.
The film commences with three almost immediately jolting scenes, firstly when the German regiment now retreating surrendered territory in the dead of winter, come across a hand protruding from the frozen ice and then learn it belongs to a former colleague. Soon afterwards, we see members of the same troop "volunteered" to execute by firing squad four Russian civilians, one of them a woman, after first making them dig their own graves. This proves to be too much for the already shredded nerves of one of the young participants, who soon afterwards takes his own life. All this in the first 20 minutes.
After that however it does settle to recognisable Sirk territory as the story concentrates on young German soldier John Gavin, who to his own surprise is granted a furlough which he uses to try to return to his parents' house only to find they have left and the house itself is now bombed to the ground. What's immediately apparent once he's back home is the town civilians' complete indifference to the returning front-line soldier. No hero to them, indeed he's accused of having it easy compared to the almost daily Allied bombing barrage they're enduring.
One plus for him however is that in his search he meets and quickly falls in love with the pretty daughter of his parents' doctor. They decide to marry and to complete their happiness all they need to do it seems is find their respective sets of parents, see out the war and live happily ever after, but remembering the M.O.'s of both Sirk and Remarque, plus there's a big clue in the film title, their stories don't end happily and in fact the climax is a shockingly brutal moment reminiscent of those initial three scenes. Thus the film rams home its point about the futility of war effectively making the point that almost nothing good can come from it.
Master cinematographer Russell Metty, under Sirk's direction, shows himself equally capable of filming war-weary soldiers, battlefields and ruined houses as rich socialites in their grand houses in the United States. That said, it is disconcerting to hear everyone, Germans and Russians alike, speaking in crystal-clear American accents.
Leads John Gavin and Liselotte Pulver make for an attractive couple whose love story blossoms against the odds and there's a notable appearance by author Remarque himself in a prominent part as a dissenting doctor. Gavin is obviously playing the type of role that Rock Hudson would normally fulfil for Sirk, but I can understand, for reasons of veracity and credibility, why the lesser-known Gavin got the part, although his inexperience does I think show through at times.
This is a film where Sirk, more famous for his lush romantic contemporary melodramas gets his hands somewhat dirtier. There's earthy barrack-room humour amongst the serving soldiers, extreme cruelty as demonstrated by the drunken piano-playing Gestapo commandant describing his layer-cake method of mass-killing, depictions of prostitutes and call girls and in that final sequence, blind patriotism which in time of war, ruthlessly fails to acknowledge a life-saving kindness granted to it.
A bleak but powerful film then, with a strong anti-war message, effectively but still stylishly directed by Sirk, the better for setting its main characters on the other side of the divide.