Beware of Pity (1946) User Reviews

sad story

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 5 November 2015]

The beautiful Lilli Palmer stars with Albert Lieven and Sir Cedric Hardwicke in "Beware of Pity" from 1946, based on a novel by Stefan Zweig.

Someone suggested that this film would have been better had it been done by Warner Brothers and starred Paul Henried and Bette Davis. It's an interesting and correct thought. They would have brought warmth to the characterizations which seem lacking here.

An older soldier, Anton Marek (Lieven) tells a younger one a story from his own youth. One night at a party, he asks a Baroness (Palmer) to dance, before realizing that she is unable to walk due to paralysis.

Embarrassed and feeling sorry for her, he attempts to make it up to her by visiting from time to time, not realizing that she is falling in love with him.

Afraid of hurting her feelings, he does not discourage her, nevertheless, her assumptions trouble him because she is so fragile and overprotected by her family.

The message here is mixed and for some reason, the movie doesn't draw one in, though the story is sad. On the one hand, this man is being asked to attach himself to someone he doesn't love, with a belief that in the future love will grow. And on the other hand, he should rip off the band-aid early on.

Gladys Cooper has a supporting role as the attending doctor's blind wife, and she gives a good performance.

Lilli Palmer is radiant if by today's standards a little over the top. Sir Cedric Hardwicke is excellent as the woman's doctor.

It's a shame this film wasn't in color as the scenery looked as if it would have been beautiful.

A film that asks the question: "What is damaged easier, the body or the mind?"

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 5 January 2011]

That is the question that leads us into the character of a crippled Austrian Baroness (Lilli Palmer), a beauty who became unable to walk after falling off her horse. When a young officer (Albert Lieven) is introduced to her, he is smitten by her beauty, but when he realizes that she is crippled, she becomes devastated and goes into a state of panic. They meet again, and in a calmer state of mind, she explains why she was so overwrought by the incident. Her doctor and companion worry that the pity he feels for her will send her into a deeper depression and towards suicide, but they find that when she is in a calm state of mind, they really have a lot in common. But it's apparent that Palmer has been more damaged mentally than physically as she becomes consumed with the idea that his affections for her are not genuine, and she refuses to live with pity even though he genuinely comes to love her.

Like great tragedies of fiction, "Beware of Pity" is somewhat slow moving and somber, but opens some interesting clues to the human psyche. The people around Palmer have also been greatly affected by her physical and mental state, and it isn't until Lieven meets her doctor's blind wife (the wonderful Gladys Cooper) that he begins to see things from a clearer perspective. Cooper's character offers a different insight into a stronger woman who is aware that her husband did marry her out of pity, but her own strength of character helped make her less dependent on him and able to give Lieven a perspective into the troubled Palmer.

This is an acting triumph for Lieven, Palmer, and Cooper. Palmer resembles Rita Hayworth facially and is heartbreakingly real. Her character reminded me of the Fosca character in the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical "Passion", although Fosca is physically unattractive in addition to her ill health. Lieven, first seen in World War II times telling his tale to a younger officer in the same situation, is greatly understated in his role. Palmer gets the juicier moments as an actor, but together, the two share some remarkable scenes. Palmer shows both sides of the Baroness, and as she becomes more disturbed as Lieven's love for her grows, she is amazing. Cooper comes on an hour into the film, and from there, she is missed every time she is off screen. She is the heart and soul of the film, a woman who has refused to allow her blindness dominate her life. When she tells Lieven that it is the physically handicapped and less attractive people who learn to know what real love is, you truly feel the sentiments of what she is saying. The emotions of that scene are hard to describe in a brief review, but once you see it, you'll greatly understand the sentiment behind her words.

Most British films of this era are sometimes hard for Ameican audiences to get into because the pacing is not up to what Hollywood films of the era were presenting. But in the case of this one, the slowness of the first quarter of the film builds sensibly to an emotional drama where each piece of this complex puzzle explodes into its dramatic conclusion.

Beware of Pity

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 8 January 2023]

Albert Lieven is efficient here as the Austrian officer "Marek" who meets the glamorous "Baroness Edith" (Lilli Palmer) at a lavish dance. Asking her for a waltz, he soon discovers that she has been paralysed. The two chat and remain in touch over the coming months where she falls well and truly in love. Thing is, he doesn't quite reciprocate and when she accidentally discovers this, she runs away, distressed and alone, and her thoughts turn to suicide. The title is quite apt here - it illustrates the dangers of, however innocently, leading someone on with gestures of affection and kindness when they don't have the necessary reality filters to appreciate the distinction between fondness and amour. It's set just before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, so has many of the opulent settings of the Hapsburg court as a backdrop - the costumes and settings all look grand. There is also an interesting sub-plot with dedicated doctor "Kondor" (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and his blind wife "Klara" (a lovely, nuanced effort from Gladys Cooper) with the latter proving a vital conduit for the young man to realise just what his relationship with "Edith" really means... It's rather wordy this, and there are maybe just too many characters that rather diffuse the narrative a little too much - but if you enjoy historical melodrama with a fine period score from Nicholas Brodsky then you ought to enjoy this rather superior drama with a conscience.

A Viennese Tragedy from Stefan Zweig

[theowinthrop · 9/10 · 30 September 2005]

The name of Stefan Zweig means very little today, for most of his once popular novels about Austria and Europe, his biographies, his other works are out of print. In his heyday, the 1920s and 1930s, he was as popular a writer from Middle Europe as Thomas Mann or Robert Musil. But despite the distinction he brought to his work, he ran afoul of history. Zweig was Jewish. He was forced to flee Europe due to the rise of Hitler, and the spread of the Holocaust. Zweig tried to bring word of the mass murders to the rest of the globe, only to meet indifference or hostility or incredulity. In the end, in desperation that he could not do anything, Zweig committed suicide.

Therefore it is odd that this moving and delicate British film has a sensibility and twist that mirrors the tragedy of the author's death. Albert Lieven is seen as a middle aged man at the start of the story. He is approached by a young friend about an impossible love situation and how to handle it. Lieven tells the young man to make sure that he is in love before he decides anything, and then tells him the story of his tragic relationship, in the days just before World War I, with a young baroness played by Lili Palmer. Lieven was a promising Austrian army officer, who sees Palmer at a ball, and goes over to the seated woman to offer to dance with her. But she is crippled. Feeling sorry for Palmer, Lieven stays with her and escorts her home. Her father, Ernest Theisinger, notices that Palmer's sad emotional state is radically altered by Lieven's attention. Lieven, of course, just planned to be friendly that night, but Theisinger takes him aside and begs him to continue his visits. They may help Palmer regain her gaiety and love of life - both of which have left her ever since she had a riding accident that left her crippled.

Lieven, dutifully, keeps attending Palmer in her home. This slowly comes to the attention of his superior who warns him that although she is of the nobility her family are minor nobility at that. If Lieven hopes for the promising military career that he is capable of, he can't be married to this nobody.

Lieven has never actually come out to say that he is interested in marrying Palmer (although in her new euphoria she is thinking along those lines). As the social and career pressures on him, confronting his better nature, Lieven finds it increasingly difficult to decide what to do. At a critical moment he breaks with Palmer, and flees the small town to go to his new post. But on the way he starts reconsidering his situation and realizes he does love Palmer. But can he get back to her now...particularly as war is breaking out? And will she be there to take him back?

Albert Lieven is not a great name to conjure with in cinema, but he was an above average performer. He is one of the two spies/agents who are trying to retrieve a diary they stole in SLEEPING CAR TO TRIESTE, and carried off that role with a nice combination of sexiness, intelligence, and malevolence. Here he shows himself capable of decency and kindness. He tries desperately to do the right thing for Palmer, caring for her tragic situation. However his own tragedy is that he gets far too much advice from too many in this film, and he can't resolve the difficulties of his situation in a timely manner. His tragedy is that he concentrates on Palmer's fragile condition, so that he only sees his actions as pity for her. He fails, until the end, to realize that he would not have returned to her but for his growing affection for her.

As for Lili Palmer, this was not her first lead role, but it is one of her best ones. Her physical disaster has cast a pall over everything in her life (and as a wealthy aristocrat, she should actually have the world as a plaything at this time of life). And suddenly she has a handsome, military man showing concern and interest in her - but is the interest genuine or not. What is he, a lover or a temporary companion? Her tragedy is that her pessimism is too strong when her hopes get shaken.

The interaction of the two is quite good. So is the production, that manages to bring that greater tragedy of the summer of 1914 into the film - even to bringing a scene where Lieven and his fellow officers are addressed by a belligerent Archduke Franz Ferdinand before he went to Sarajevo. I recommend it to the movie fan, who appreciates a bittersweet flavoring at times in his or her cinema.

Audience voted with it's feet!

[hnickhardy · 2/10 · 7 February 2006]

Saw this movie when first screened. It was the first and only time I've seen an audience near riot.The cinema was THE LIME HOUSE in Prescot near Liverpool UK. We were about ten minutes into the screening when the audience commenced banging feet and catcalling.The noise was appalling and the showing was cancelled,the manager called for a show of hands,there was not one vote from a crowded cinema to continue the show.

Remember this was 1946\7 preTV.in the UK. It was BEWARE OF PITY or nothing,the crowd opted for the latter.The manager had no choice but to offer money back or a free ticket for a future show.At that time people were more restrained {1946\47}; which made it all the more extraordinary.Sadly in these days an incident such as this would not be noteworthy

Faithful storytelling to an amazing novel.

[iangordonmiller · 9/10 · 19 July 2020]

I read this novel after listening to Wes Anderson refer to it as one of the inspirations for his movie The Grand Budapest Hotel. I was blown away by the story, and Zweig. I figured no one, not even today could hope to capture the emotional dissonance of such a great story by Zweig but then I found this 1946 film somehow and I think it did a very good job at portraying the characters and their management of the storyline. The screenplay was simple and alike movies of the day the emphasis was on the expression of the actors. Lilly was fabulous and justly pitiful. It's a very simple story that is tragic and the movie captured it well. I'm so glad I found it.

To feel sorrow for someone else's misfortune

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 14 September 2022]

Before you watch this film you have to know what pity is. You need to have experienced it, been on the receiving end of it, in order to fully empathize with Lilli Palmer's character. The person who is pitied is never envied, but made to feel sorry for, because they suffer some disadvantage in life. Their differentness is perceived as a disability or handicap.

The film is based on Stefan Zweig's novel Ungeduld des Herzens. Miss Palmer plays the daughter of an influential baron (Ernest Thesinger). Years earlier she had been severely crippled in a horse riding accident on her father's estate. While dealing with the pain of her injuries, as well as the emotional scars of becoming a woman dependent on others for help, she has withdrawn from life and become reclusive.

The family's castle sits high atop a hill, and behind it is a steep drop off the side of a cliff. One night the baron decides to entertain some military officials, and a lieutenant (Albert Lieven) is among the guests. He seems taken with Palmer, studying her from across the room. A short time later, he approaches to ask her for a dance. She is eager to join him for a waltz, then she remembers she's crippled.

It's an interesting way for two people to meet, since it's a mixture of sincerity, social awkwardness and yes, pity. Sometimes the film quickly slips into overwrought melodrama, but I guess we need to see how conflicted she is. She's like a bird without wings that thinks she can still fly.

Lilli Palmer is wonderful in the role, though I do think she might have been too old. The filmmakers try to present her as a naive virgin, but Miss Palmer is a bit mature and all-knowing here. I wonder what it would have been like if a less sophisticated, more innocent type actress had been cast. Of course, it's a difficult role to play and Palmer is more than capable of plumbing the emotional depths required of her.

One thing that works for me-- there are points in the narrative where the main character plays a supporting role to the others. Sometimes the story shifts so that we see how the others are coping. There is a faithful friend (Linden Travers) and a mayor (Gerhard Kempinski) as well as the baron who are all affected by Palmer's tragic condition.

Besides these characters we have a dedicated doctor (Cedric Hardwicke) who makes regular visits to the castle. Because Lieven's character claims he has heard of a new experimental treatment, the doctor is asked whether there might be any hope for Palmer to have an operation which would restore her ability to walk.

Hardwicke is cautious and needs time to research the matter. Palmer quickly clings to the idea she can regain mobility. She not only dreams of dancing with the young lieutenant but marrying him. She has become hopelessly infatuated with him and declares her love.

A lesser film would become all saccharine and make it about the two lovebirds overcoming all odds. But this is not that type of motion picture.

After Hardwicke makes inquiries, he learns the surgery will probably not help Palmer and she will remain paralyzed. Since Lieven has been leading Palmer on, he tries to back out of the relationship insisting he is her friend and that he doesn't love her in the same way she loves him.

I don't think Lieven's character is necessarily a cad, but he's very flawed. He becomes guilty of doling out pity, though at the same time he does have genuine feelings for Palmer. It's an extraordinary performance, and we get the sense that he may be in just as much anguish as the girl.

The two ultimately become engaged, but it is a promise of marriage built on false hope. Palmer is still determined to try the operation, and Lieven is unwilling to give her the home truths she needs. She is being coddled and to some extent, deluded.

In a memorable scene in town, Lieven's fellow officers have learned about the engagement which he vehemently denies. He acts ashamed of being promised (and compromised) this way. He goes to visit Hardwicke but learns the doctor is away, so he speaks to the man's wife (Gladys Cooper).

In my opinion Miss Cooper plays the best character in the movie. She is blind, and we are told Hardwicke had once attempted to operate on her and this resulted in her permanent loss of vision. Obviously, the disability of Cooper's character mirrors what Palmer's been experiencing. There is some very good dialogue where Cooper describes having been pitied, but marrying Hardwicke because the pity turned into compassion which turned into real love.

Unfortunately, Lieven is not as unselfish or as kind as Hardwicke. He accepts a transfer to another post and plans to leave without seeing Palmer. Cooper agrees to go to the castle to give Palmer the heartbreaking news. In one of the final scenes, the two handicapped women talk about what's happened. Palmer is unable to cope with the devastating turn of events...it sends her over the edge. Literally.

Directed at a funereal pace this film fails to engage

[malcolmgsw · 4/10 · 25 April 2013]

This film is clearly designed to leap on the Gainsborough bandwagon and provide a 4 hankie weepie.Unfortunately it totally fails in its intent and by the time it reaches its predictable climax you are urging Lilli Palmer just to get on with it to end your suffering.Since to watch this film right through is to suffer the most enormous pangs of boredom.Little wonder the UK audiences preferred American films when this sort of rubbish was foisted on them.Even with the patina of age this film has not worn well.Palmer is a fine actress but even she cannot make much of such a self obsessed part.It is difficult to believe that Albert Levien could feel anything for her.So if anyone deserves pity it is the poor viewer

a very sad and moving tale

[calvertfan · 9/10 · 27 April 2002]

A young soldier comes to see Lt. Marek about a girl he knows who has been injured in a bomb blast, and he's not sure how to handle her. The story then moves into flashback mode, as Marek tells the soldier his own tale.

Lilli Palmer is the beautiful young baroness, who has been injured in a fall from her beloved horse, and can not walk - this, a young Marek finds out, when he asks her to dance at a party, and she can not even stand up unaided. Feeling sorry for her, he befriends her and soon she begins to fall for him, a feeling which he does not totally reciprocate. Not wanting to hurt her pride, as her love for him is the only thing keeping her hopeful that she may one day walk again, he agrees to marry her. But then she finds out that he is doing everything only through pity, and Marek finds out that she has heard - and in his race to save her from killing herself, he also realises that he truly is in love with her afterall.

Lilli Palmer is brilliant as always

[calvertfan · 9/10 · 28 April 2002]

A young soldier comes to see Lt. Marek about a girl he knows who has been injured in a bomb blast, and he's not sure how to handle her. The story then moves into flashback mode, as Marek tells the soldier his own tale.

Lilli Palmer is the beautiful young baroness, who has been injured in a fall from her beloved horse, and can not walk - this, a young Marek finds out, when he asks her to dance at a party, and she can not even stand up unaided. Feeling sorry for her, he befriends her and soon she begins to fall for him, a feeling which he does not totally reciprocate. Not wanting to hurt her pride, as her love for him is the only thing keeping her hopeful that she may one day walk again, he agrees to marry her. But then she finds out that he is doing everything only through pity, and Marek finds out that she has heard - and in his race to save her from killing herself, he also realises that he truly is in love with her after all! But - will he make it in time to tell her this?..

A Very Good Adaptation

[jromanbaker · 8/10 · 18 November 2021]

Many great novels do not adapt easily to the cinema, and it was with a certain hesitancy that I watched this version of Stefan Zweig's ' Beware of Pity. ' It does not totally succeed, and the lead actor Albert Lieven did not seem quite right for the soldier who succumbs to pity towards a woman played by Lilli Palmer who has lost her ability to walk. I am not sure who in 1946 could have taken on such a complex and exacting role, but he does his best. Lilli Palmer by contrast is superb as the woman who tries to gain his love, but realises that she is asking too much and that pity towards her is intolerable. The direction is somewhat pedestrian but the supporting cast makes up for it, and Gladys Cooper ( a great actor who should be more remembered than she is ) is extraordinary as a blind woman who tries to convince the soldier there is a difference between compassion than pity. The film is set just before the First World War in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and it is the fatal shot at Sarajevo that precipitates the saddening climax. To reveal more would be unfair, and for those who have not read Stefan Zwieg this is a good introduction. I recommend finding this rare film.

Out of pity an officer gets involuntarily involved with a suicidal cripple with consequences.

[clanciai · 9/10 · 2 April 2017]

This was Stefan Zweig's one and only novel, who was a great psychologist and in this novel approached the realms of Dostoievsky's keen insight into the complexities of the human mind and dealing with it with a very delicate touch. The film has succeeded in embracing the terrible predicament of the officer, who sees no way out when a suicidal cripple has given him her unconditional love which he can't answer. It's a universally worrying situation for everyone involved, including her entire family, her doctor and his wife and his own regimental fellow officers, and the real title of the novel is "The Heart's Unrest", driving the unreleased passion of the heart to the brinks of hysteria and desperation, like also in his short story "Verwirrung der Gefühle" ("The Confusion of Feelings"). Lilli Palmer dominates the film giving one of her best performances of extreme charm and sensitivity, Cedric Hardwicke is perfect as the troubled doctor who is also stuck in the dilemma of not being able to deliver the truth, he is in a similar situation himself stuck for life as married to a blind wife (Gladys Cooper, always excellent), playing a vital part in the drama, while Albert Lieven is just as helpless in his role as he should be. It is beautifully filmed, Cecil Beaton having created the exquisite costumes, the environment is like the beauteous dream of a fairy tale but real, and reality is all too palpable as the first world war breaks out - Archduke Franz Ferdinand has a small part in the film. On the whole, it's a film well worth seeing for its challenging task of realizing a very worrying and troublesome story of a predicament that could happen to anyone.

It's interesting to compare this Stefan Zweig film with the other one of almost the same year, Max Ophuls' "Letter from an Unknown Woman", on one of his short stories. In that film very much is altered, the writer in the story is a pianist in the film, and the events of the story are much less tragic and poignant than in the film. In "Beware of Pity" very little is altered, it sticks to the book with carefulness, and still Max Ophuls' film is so much more interesting and gripping. Curiously enough, just by making so great changes to the story, he makes Stefan Zweig more alive and convincing, than the almost pedantic "Beware of Pity" being more true to the letter.

I like how this film kept me guessing.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 18 December 2011]

If you want a film that is a formulaic romance with a nice, happy ending, then I suggest you don't watch "Beware of Pity". While I loved the film, I know it's the type of film that might depress or alienate some. Just a warning before you give it a watch...

The film begins just as WWII ends in Europe. A young pilot has been seeing a disabled girl for some time--more out of pity than anything else. His commanding officer (ALbert Lieven) calls him to his office and begins telling him a story about his own life...when HE began seeing a woman more out of pity than anything else.

"Beware the Pity" then jumps back several decades--just before WWI. The commanding officer is a young lieutenant who makes a very innocent comment--not knowing she cannot walk. He feels terrible--but he sure shouldn't have known. So, after the dance party, he returns to apologize and they soon become friends. However, he has no interest in her beyond this and only sees her because she's lonely and he feels sorry for her. Over time, however, she falls in love with him...and things get very complicated. And, through all this, if he'd just been honest with her, none of this would have happened...and the film would have ended on a happier notes.

The film has very nice acting and production values. However, the biggest star is the script. It's very original AND it kept me guessing--and that is very nice. Worth seeing...but not for all tastes.

This is an absolute gem.

[mimimcg-62577 · 10/10 · 13 April 2022]

Not for everyone because it is sad but the acting is superb. The message is from a time where love had a different meaning. It makes you think. It makes you uncomfortable and the photography is perfection.

I hope you have the opportunity of viewing this wonderful and challenging film. Bravo.