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:

Inge Koerner: I'm Inga Koerner. I write for the Globus, a German news weekly.
Maj. Steve Garrett: Yes, I've heard of it.
Inge Koerner: Oh, have you?
Maj. Steve Garrett: I smelled it! You work for a rotten sheet, lady!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Unearthly (#4.20)" (1991)

Soundtrack:

Town Without Pity

Gripping, powerful, shocking for its time.

When this film was released in 1961, I remember the ads saying this film was for "Adults Only". (The MPAA rating system didn't exist then.) A film about four soldiers stationed in Germany who gang rape a 16 year old girl and the trial that followed was pretty heavy stuff for audiences back then. I recently saw the film on Turner Classic Movies, and it still holds up very well. It is still startling and powerful, even without nudity and foul language, which should show Hollywood it can be done. You can be "adult" without being unnecessarily vulgar or obscene. As it stands, I would still give this film an "R" rating today.

And, of course, there is the memorable title song, sung by Gene Pitney, which accounted for the film's only (surprisingly) Oscar nomination. Even that lost out to the syrupy "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

My one complaint about Turner's presentation was with the film's aspect ratio. Instead of showing a widescreen version, they showed a full-frame version with the framing "squeezed" so that faces were somewhat elongated and cars appeared "stubby" and compacted. This became very annoying. Even a pan & scan version would be better than this.

Nonetheless, for sheer power, as well as excellent acting by Kirk Douglas, E.G. Marshall, Christine Kaufmann, and a very young Robert Blake, I highly recommend "Town Without Pity".