The Search
- Film Reviews
(.Featuring Montgomery Clift and
Ivan Jandl.)
It may be felt that the subject of the orphaned, stateless children of Europe needs no underlining or highlights, but the devastation left after war is a tragedy upon which we should necessarily dwell. As portrayed in The Search, the story of the little Czech boy who like many other children is separated from his mother while in a concentration camp, then branded by the Nazis and later taken to an U.N.R.R.A. centre, is tremendously moving. The ensuing scenes of the terrified child running away from what he thinks is a death van, the mother’s search for her lost child, the boy’s growing confidence in the American soldier, are all unforgettable. Unfortunately, there is never any beauty on which the eye can rest. We have two scenes by the river, but each time it is only the background for sad action or theme. Some shots of the children are beautiful, but it is a thin beauty. Their strained anxious faces peer out on ruins.
The acting of the amateurs and professionals is good. The latter are well represented by Montgomery Clift and Aline MacMahan. But sometimes I felt they were showing us a little too expertly how to be kind to children, and within these limits they could both have improved their performance by pitching their voices on a gentler note.
The skilful simplicity of Fred Zinneman’s direction seems to stamp the whole film as sincere and humane. But it is well to keep in mind the criticism which asked if this subject would have been better treated as a documentary ? As it is, The Search throws out many emotional threads which interweave closely with our own infantile associations and frustrations. Hence we wonder if a straightforward statement of facts would be more helpful towards an adult assessment of things as they were.
H.U.B. Obsession. {Featuring Robert Newton, Naunton Wayne and Sally Gray.) 98 min.
In the-recent Bulletin of the World Federation for Mental Health, Professor John M. Murray has written of ” the acceptance of psychiatry as a rightful member at the family table of medicine But the family must be an exclusive one or one, at any rate, that does not welcome visitors from the cinema world. For on the screen the psychiatrist is not yet a rightful member of any family table. In the film Obsession, this un-family man is a husband who is bitterly jealous and resentful of his wife’s frequent flirtations. So he decides to seize the next man, keep him in an underground cellar until the hue and cry raised by his disappearance has died down and then kill him, dissolving the body in a bath of acid. This he fills by bringing one hot water bottle full of acid from his laboratory every .night and regularly pouring it into the bath. This sounds, perhaps, an ordinary thriller, rather more unpleasant than many of its kind. But, in fact, it somehow escapes being unpleasant. The Prolonged filling of the bath in the underground cellar is certainly gruesome, but all the time that the bath is being filled, the audience knows that detectives are on the scent of the prisoner and excitement smothers every other feeling.
Is ” psychology ” important in this film ? Well, hardly. The villain is indeed a psychiatrist, but there is hardly any reference to his state of mind. Apart from the broad motive of jealousy, there ls no further concern with motive and feeling. Only occasionally does the plot require that the doctor should be a psychiatrist and that is when he refers to his wife. But his sententious comments ahout her mind to the nice, bewildered young American whose evening’s flirtation is costing such a heavy price, hardly reflect much credit on Psychiatry. Any husband, with moderate insight, might have said as much, though possibly less Pontifically, and, in any case, the psychiatrist’s basic belief that fear for her reputation will prevent her going to the police, turns out to be false. But ldoesn’t matter, except to those who are a little tired of seeing the psychiatrist forever dupe or villain?and they may well feel that the film would have been just as good if the villain had been a chemist or research worker or, indeed, anyone who could easily get access to the essential acid. P.E.W.
Educational Films
In response to requests, we publish below brief comments on some educational films of psychological interest ^hich are available for hire. We hope to include notes ?” others in future issues of the Journal. Reeling of Rejection. 16mm., 35mm. Sound. 23 mirts. Central Film Library, Imperial Institute, London, S.W.7.
This film would seem to have been badly named as it really demonstrates the fear of loss of love, father than a feeling of rejection. It is a somewhat amateurish production, and the adult part of the hhn is not particularly well presented. One is Jeft with the impression that the treatment indicated Js far too simple, but the childhood part of the film !s well constructed and effective.
The story is that of a young girl who, as a result of difficulties in her early life in which she felt herself pushed out by the younger child and was made to be good and to keep quiet all the time, Srew up in such a way that she had a need to Placate others and had repressed her own aggression. She was unable to stand up for her own rights, and this resulted in periodic migraine headaches which incapacitated her.
The film should prove useful to the general public, and particularly to parents, but it is probably too superficial to be of much value to students or specialists.
C.H-S. Over-Dependency. 16mm., 35mm. Sound. 27 mins. National Film Board of Canada, Sackville House, 40 Piccadilly, W.l. This film is fairly well produced. It gives the story of a young man who had been grossly overprotected by his mother and sister as a child, and encouraged to retreat into illness. In his adult life he tended to behave in a childish manner, and married a woman who had to carry the burden of protecting him as a child. He finally goes to a general practitioner who traces the root of his trouble to psychological causes. The general practitioner seems to have been somewhat idealized in that he had a profound knowledge of psychological medicine and apparently carried out the treatment himself.
While the treatment is made to appear too simple, there is a clever demonstration of the bodily effects of anxiety and emotional stress. The film should be useful for the general public and for parents, and possibly also for medical students and general practitioners.
C.H-S. Life with Baby. 16mm., 35mm. Sound. 20 mins. 16mm.: Associated British Pathe, Film House, War dour Street, W.l. 35 mm.: Contract Manager, 20th Century Fox, 31 Soho Square, W.l.
This is a March of Time film on the Institute of Child Development at Yale, U.S.A., run by Dr. Gesell. It gives a straightforward and coherent account of Dr Gesell’s methods, investigations and research, showing the babies at different ages In a closed dome, where the children are unaware of the audience, although the audience is watching every move.
The film explains the value of Dr Gesell’s researches in establishing the normal average behaviour of any child, in any age group. By so doing, the Institute has been able to run a research centre, an advice clinic and lectures about children’s problems. In many cases the fears and anxieties of parents over their children, which were due more to ignorance of how their children should behave than to any real difficulty, have been allayed. As a film depicting the work of this research centre it is valuable, but if it is shown to nonexperts it should be used in conjunction with a commentary or as a basis for discussion. EH.R.
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