Town Without Pity (1961)

Director:

Gottfried Reinhardt

Writers:

Manfred Gregor (novel)
George Hurdalek (screenplay)

Release Date:

March 1961 (Austria)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The Story of What Four Men Did To a Girl... And What the Town Did To Them!

Plot:

Four American soldiers stationed near a German village face death in the rape of a local girl and are defended by outside counsel Major Steve Grant.

Plot Keywords:

Soldier | Village | Rape | Provincialism | Cross Examination

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Kirk Douglas	...	Maj. Steve Garrett
Barbara Rütting	...	Inge Koerner
Christine Kaufmann	...	Karin Steinhof
E.G. Marshall	...	Col. Jerome Pakenham
Hans Nielsen	...	Karl Steinhof
Ingrid van Bergen	...	Trude
Robert Blake	...	Cpl. Jim Larkin
Richard Jaeckel	...	Cpl. Birdwell "Birdie" Scott
Frank Sutton	...	Sgt. Chuck Snyder
Karin Hardt	...	Frau Steinhof
Gerhart Lippert	...	Frank Borgmann
Mal Sondock	...	Pvt. Joey Haines
Alan Gifford	...	Gen. Stafford
Max Haufler	...	Dr. Urban
Rose Renée Roth	...	Frau Kulig

Also Known As:

Stadt ohne Mitleid (West Germany)
Ville sans pitié (Switzerland: French title) (literal title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA | West Germany | Switzerland

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Atelier Sievering, Vienna, Austria

Company:

Mirisch Corporation, The

Trivia:

Christine Kaufmann's American film debut.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Karin is trying to draw Frank's attention, we see her unhook her bra (while obscured by bushes), remove half of her two-piece bikini suit, followed shortly by a shot of her bare back. When Jim Larkin covers her up with his shirt, we can see she is wearing the bikini top again. In the context of the plot, she would not have been able to put it back on, and the soldiers certainly would not have. (Though we never see her dropping the bottom, we can assume she did remove it at the same time, without that being presented.)

Quotes:

Col. Jerome Pakenham: This is no cross-examination! It's a circus!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (#9.12)" (1997)

Soundtrack:

Town Without Pity

Overuse of Good Music Without Pity

This was all in all a great film, with riveting performances from all the cast. My problem was the weak,ineffective score, which took a great theme song and beat it like a dead horse. The opening scene and credits placed the song well, but the frequent, unrelenting repeat of the theme both instrumental and with Gene Pitney's great vocals throughout the film in quite inappropriate places "isn't very pretty" at all. Very distracting to the viewer, and certainly took away some of the film's impact.The rest of the score was passable, but nothing special. I think the intended tone of the film could have been maintained or even intensified if there were no further music in the film after the song ran with the opening credits.