Anne Bancroft early in her career (1951) stands out in this story of post-war gloom and despair, set in Norduna, Germany in 1946. The live performance takes us back to a world of the Black Market and folks trying to survive against the threat of Germans working for the Soviets. The anit-communist sentiment of the time is ever-present in the writing, but at its best the neverending plight of displaced persons, now even more prevalent 73 years after this show was broadcast with wars in Europe, the Middle East and Africa still raging, is vividly depicted.
Anne, playing Latvian refugee who at age 24 has already witnessed the death of all her family except her brother (now hunted as a terrorist by the communists) and unspeakable horrors from both the Russians and the German, hooks up with Patric Knowles, a German sea captain returned to his home after being an American prisoner held in Texas during the war.
The bitterness of these survivors is best expressed by Leni Engel, a German woman who was once betrothed to Patric, but is now barely surviving. I was surprised to learn of her lengthy career, dating all the way back to co-starring in a Wheeler & Woolsey comedy feature (a fine one at that) made 20 years earlier at RKO.
Knowles' stoicism as he fights his shame at being a German, balanced by his hope for some sort of redemption is well-matched by the emotional power of Bancroft's subtle strength, when the hope for either of them is dim at best. Dennis Patrick, the character actor whose finest hour didn't come until 1970 co-starring with Peter Boyle in the classic "Joe", is pretty amazing as one of the villains of the piece, a militant dupe of the communist cause working toward world domination, until Knowles takes him down. As an evil German working for the Russians, Kurt Katch is well-cast as Anne's torturer.