A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958)

Information from IMDb

Plot Summary
In 1944, a company of German soldiers on the Russian front
are numbed by the horrors and hardships of war when Private Ernst Graeber's
long awaited furlough comes through. Back home in Germany,
he finds his home bombed. While hopelessly searching for his parents,
he meets lovely Elizabeth Kruse, daughter of a political prisoner;
together they try to wrest sanity and survival from a world full of hatred.
Written by Rod Crawford

Full Cast
John Gavin ... Ernst Graeber
Liselotte Pulver ... Elizabeth Kruse Graeber (as Lilo Pulver)
Jock Mahoney ... Immerman
Don DeFore ... Hermann Boettcher
Keenan Wynn ... Reuter
Erich Maria Remarque ... Professor Pohlmann
Dieter Borsche ... Captain Rahe
Barbara Rütting ... Woman Guerrilla
Thayer David ... Oscar Binding
Charles Regnier ... Joseph
Dorothea Wieck ... Frau Lieser
Kurt Meisel ... Heini
Agnes Windeck ... Frau Witte
Clancy Cooper ... Sauer
John Van Dreelen ... Political Officer
Klaus Kinski ... Gestapo Lieutenant
Alice Treff ... Frau Langer
Alexander Engel ... Mad Air Raid Warden
Jim Hutton ... Hirschland (as Dana J. Hutton)
Bengt Lindström ... Steinbrenner
Wolf Harnisch ... Sergeant Muecke
Karl Ludwig Lindt ... Dr. Karl Fresenburg
Lisa Helwig ... Frau Kleinert
Paul Frees ... Several Characters (voice) (uncredited)
Alexander Welbat ... Otto Binding (uncredited)
Ralf Wolter ... Feldmann the Taylor (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Orin Jannings (screenplay)
Erich Maria Remarque (novel "A Time to Love and a Time to Die")

Original Music
Miklós Rózsa (as Miklos Rozsa)

Cinematography
Russell Metty

Trivia
Jim Hutton's movie debut.

Only a few of the German speaking actors were dubbed in the English Version, the majority of the non-American cast actually spoke English in the film.

Douglas Sirk and Erich Maria Remarque became close friends during the shooting. Later, in Switzerland, they were even neighbors.

Reportedly Jean-Luc Godard's favorite out of Douglas Sirk's films.

The source novel by was first published in 1954, written by author Erich Maria Remarque who wrote other war tomes such as All Quiet on the Western Front and The Arch of Triumph.

According to the Australian DVD sleeve notes, they state that Douglas Sirk's "standing amongst the new auteurist critics in Europe was on the rise, with Jean-Luc Godard writing on Sirk's 1957 film, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, in the influential journal 'Cahiers du Cinema'."

This is one of few American or occidental war or World War II films where the focus, subject or main characters were the enemy (i.e. in this case German and not American nor their Allies).

This movie is novelist Erich Maria Remarque's only ever on-screen performance.

This Douglas Sirk film is an example of American 1950s Sirkian technicolor melodrama (though it is arguably less soapishy). Other examples include Written on the Wind; Imitation of Life; Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows.

This is not actually Douglas Sirk's only war movie. He also directed the Korean War movie Battle Hymn with 1950s Sirk regular Rock Hudson and the earlier black-and-white World War II films Hitler's Madman and Mystery Submarine.

Author Erich Maria Remarque's appearance in this film is a rare instance that an actual novelist appears in the filmed adaptation of his own novel.

This film's opening preamble states: "The Russian-German Front 1944."

Erich Maria Remarque: The author of the actual original source novel appears as Professor Pohlmann in the film.

Goofs
Revealing mistakes
(At 2:02) The main character cocks his K98 Bolt Rifle; if you look carefully, he just pretends to cock it.

Early in the movie when the platoon is dismissed, one of the soldiers is seen carrying a machine

Memorable Quotes

Filming Locations
Berlin, Germany
CCC-Atelier, Spandau, Berlin, Germany

Watch the first few minutes

[extendedmedia]

A Time to Love and a Time to Die is a 1958 American CinemaScope drama film
directed by Douglas Sirk and starring John Gavin.
It is based on the book by the German author, Erich Maria Remarque,
set on the Eastern Front (World War II), and in Nazi Germany.

Jim Hutton's movie debut.

User Review

Quote

A little-known classic
22 October 2004 | by Elgroovio (Luxembourg City, Luxembourg)

I saw this fabulous tear-jerker purely by accident but I don't regret it one bit. In my opinion it's one of the best romantic war films ever made. This is mainly because the fabulous director Douglas Sirk doesn't allow it to become a soppy schmaltz. Also, the film is incredibly moving, especially in a scene at the beginning where a young man, unable to live with the guilt of having shot a woman, shoots himself. John Gavin is good as Ernst Graeber and his beloved is adequately played by Liselotte Pulver, but the most outstanding performance, I think, is by Charles Régnier as Joseph. If more war films were made like this then they would be much, much more watchable. The credit sequence at the beginning of the film is also very well done. Why don't more people know this masterpiece? Enjoy! (and don't forget the Kleenex) 10/10

New Review, one for Carl amongst others