The Search (1948)

In post-war Berlin, an American private helps a lost Czech boy find his mother.

Director:

Fred Zinnemann

Writers:

Richard Schweizer (screen play), David Wechsler (collaborator: on screen play)

Stars:

Montgomery Clift, Ivan Jandl, Aline MacMahon

Won 1 Oscar. Another 6 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Montgomery Clift	...	Ralph Stevenson
Aline MacMahon	...	Mrs. Deborah R. Murray
Wendell Corey	...	Jerry Fisher
Jarmila Novotna	...	Mrs. Hanna Malik
Mary Patton	...	Mrs. Fisher
Ewart G. Morrison	...	Mr. Crookes
William Rogers	...	Tom Fisher
Ivan Jandl	...	Karel Malik
Leopold Borkowski	...	Joel Makowsky
Claude Gambier	...	Raoul Dubois

Storyline

A silent nine-year-old Czech boy, a survivor of Auschwitz, flees a refugee center in postwar Germany and is found by an American G.I. At the same time, the boy's mother, the sole surviving member of his family, searches refugee centers for her son. Time, distance, and the massive numbers of refugee children are factors hampering the reunion of mother and son.

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Plot Keywords:

germany | children | concentration camp | auschwitz | u.s. soldier | 

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Taglines:

Everybody agrees MGM's The Search is a wonderful motion picture !

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

Switzerland USA

Language:

English German French Polish Hungarian Czech

Release Date:

26 March 1948 (USA)

Also Known As:

Det dagas

Filming Locations:

Zurich, Switzerland

Box Office

Budget:

$250,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Praesens-Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Such was the naturalness of Montgomery Clift's portrayal, Fred Zinnemann was asked how he managed to coax such a realistic performance from a soldier.

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Goofs

A girl refugee describes gassings at Dachau. (11 min.) Actually, Dachau was a notorious concentration camp, not a death camp and had no gas chambers.

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Quotes

Jerry Fisher: [holds up picture of sexily-posed woman] What'd he tell you for that?
Karel Malik: The tomato!
Jerry Fisher: [to Steve, who's standing nearby] Ohhhh, brother! You'd better stick to building bridges!

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Connections

Featured in Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust (2004)

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Soundtracks

Vltava (Moldau)
(1874) (uncredited)
Music by Bedrich Smetana
In the score when the river is first shown

User Reviews

Search

After watching Roberto Rossellini's 1947 final part of his war trilogy "Germania anno zero", Fred Zinnemann's "The Search" is in direct contrast. While Rossellini approaches a similar subject with absorbing objectivity, "The Search" opts for sentimentality, although Zinnemann tried to add a documentary dimension to the story. It's the tale of a boy who is rescued by an American G.I. in Berlin, while the boy's mother is looking for him in refugee camps, after they were separated in Auschwitz during the war. Mother and child are pretty close but do not know it, so the story goes from scenes of the soldier educating the boy, to the mother's giving love to surrogate sons in a UN home for war orphans. Zinnemann's tact (or lack of passion, as some may say) nevertheless makes it work, as well as the performances by Montgomery Clift as the soldier and young Ivan Jandl as the kid, who won a special Oscar.