I have no alternative but to ask that you watch it as soon as possible.
This is undoubtedly Kirk Douglas' finest performance, probably because he's playing a character somewhat like himself. But rookie actress Christine Kaufmann completely steals the show in what must have been a very difficult performance. She deserved an Oscar, not just a second-rate Golden Globe.
Director Gottfried Reinhard is the son of impresario Max Reinhard, the guy who put Frank Wedekind on the stage. Although you may not have heard of him, Wedekind wrote such famous plays as Lulu and Springtime Awakening (which resembles Town Without Pity in some ways). That line "the law is like a great wide river" is a paraphrase of a famous line from Springtime Awakening in fact, the movie has a ton of great quotable lines e.g. "such a small town, and so much hate and meanness".
Besides the portrait of a small town where everyone hates everyone hates everyone else, added tension is given by this being a proud and ancient place humiliated by foreign conquest and occupation (West Germany, 1960). The many tensions reach boiling point and explode. This Swiss-American co-production goes places Hollywood would never dare, it more resembles German movies like The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.
The theme song was a smash hit in 1961, and even got an Oscar nomination; the music was written by the legendary Dimitri Tiomkin, a classically trained composer.
"No, it isn't very pretty what a town without pity can do-oo".
This is undoubtedly Kirk Douglas' finest performance, probably because he's playing a character somewhat like himself. But rookie actress Christine Kaufmann completely steals the show in what must have been a very difficult performance. She deserved an Oscar, not just a second-rate Golden Globe.
Director Gottfried Reinhard is the son of impresario Max Reinhard, the guy who put Frank Wedekind on the stage. Although you may not have heard of him, Wedekind wrote such famous plays as Lulu and Springtime Awakening (which resembles Town Without Pity in some ways). That line "the law is like a great wide river" is a paraphrase of a famous line from Springtime Awakening in fact, the movie has a ton of great quotable lines e.g. "such a small town, and so much hate and meanness".
Besides the portrait of a small town where everyone hates everyone hates everyone else, added tension is given by this being a proud and ancient place humiliated by foreign conquest and occupation (West Germany, 1960). The many tensions reach boiling point and explode. This Swiss-American co-production goes places Hollywood would never dare, it more resembles German movies like The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.
The theme song was a smash hit in 1961, and even got an Oscar nomination; the music was written by the legendary Dimitri Tiomkin, a classically trained composer.
"No, it isn't very pretty what a town without pity can do-oo".