Mon 14 Jan 2019
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE RED DANUBE (1949).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[5] Comments
THE RED DANUBE. MGM, 1949. Walter Pidgeon, Ethel Barrymore, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh, Louis Calhern, Melville Cooper. Based on the novel Vespers in Vienna, by Bruce Marshall. Director: George Sidney.
For a movie that’s ostensibly about the power of faith to brighten one’s life even in the darkest of times, there’s a surprisingly dark side to MGM’s The Red Danube. Adapted for the big screen from Scottish Catholic novelist Bruce Marshall’s Vespers in Vienna (1947), the movie is fundamentally a character study of one man’s struggle with, and journey toward, Christian faith. But in the midst of that journey there is collateral damage inflicted on another character, and it’s the film’s treatment of that tragic character that left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Let me explain. Walter Pidgeon portrays a British Army Colonel by the name of Nicobar. Stationed in Rome at the close of the Second World War, Nicobar works closely with three other staff members. There’s the dashing and womanizing Major Twingo (Peter Lawford), the highly efficient, but insecure Junior Commander Audrey Quail (Angela Lansbury), and the goofy Private David Moonlight (Melville Cooper).
They’re so close that they’ve developed their own rendition of the English nursery rhyme “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,†a song they sing while in the car to Vienna where they are about to begin their next posting. Their task in that city is to liaison with the Soviet occupiers and help them repatriate Soviet citizens back to Russia. A problem arises when Twingo (Lawford) falls in love with Maria (Janet Leigh), a beautiful and mysterious Austrian ballet dancer. As it turns out, she’s not an Austrian at all. Rather, she’s a Volga German, a Soviet citizen of German descent who the Soviets want back.
As the film is based on a Bruce Marshall work, it’s no surprise that Catholic themes would play a predominant role in the plot. Nicobar may be a good officer, but he’s not a good Christian. In fact, he’s bordering on atheism. It’s quite a shock to his system when he and his team are billeted in Vienna at a convent. Soon enough, he’s butting heads with the outspoken Mother Superior (Ethel Barrymore), whose anti-communism is never once in doubt. She hates the godless Reds and isn’t afraid of offending anyone, particularly those Soviet officers who want to repatriate Maria Buhlen back to the Soviet Union.
The movie soon devolves from what might have become a Cold War thriller into a religious melodrama. Nicobar is forced to choose between his duty to the Army and his conscience. Should he forcibly repatriate Maria back to Russia against her will, or should he listen to his nascent Christian conscience and find a way to allow her to stay in Austria? Mother Superior, to no one’s great surprise, wants him to answer to a power higher than that of His Majesty’s Government; namely, Pope Pius XII.
So what of the ugliness that I spoke of at the very beginning? (PLOT ALERT) Well, it’s in how the film ultimately treats Janet Leigh’s character. By far, she’s the most innocent and the least political. Furthermore, we have no idea what her religious beliefs – if any – are. When a bureaucratic nightmare lands her back in Vienna and almost in the hands of the Soviets, she attempts suicide by defenestration.
Although she doesn’t die immediately, she ultimately succumbs to her wounds. Mother Superior seems more concerned than anything that Maria committed a mortal sin in her suicide attempt and only has moments to plead for forgiveness before passing away. Twingo decides that he will be able to go on living despite her death.
And because the United Nations ultimately ends the forced repatriation of Soviet nationals, Nicobar’s faith is ultimately restored, pleasing Mother Superior to no end. As the movie ends, Nicobar and his crew are singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat†as they begin their journey to their next assignment in England. Maria, I imagine, was not on their minds.
Don’t get me wrong. There are some good moments in The Red Danube. The acting and cast are top notch. But there’s not much in George Sidney’s direction to distinguish the movie from so many other forgettable dramas from the period, and the plot is too overtly political for its own good. Other films dealing with Soviet tyranny such as Night People (1954) (reviewed here) stand the test of time far better than this dated feature.
January 14th, 2019 at 5:25 pm
Frankly the Christians in this one don’t come off as much more decent than the “Godless Commies.” The impression I always get of the movie is that Barrymore’s Mother Superior is a Stalinist in all but her faith — willing to sacrifice anything and anyone to the Vatican state.
Whatever it was supposed to be saying it doesn’t seem to say it very well, and Leigh’s convenient death saves everyone the trouble of actually taking a stand about what they believe. As post War drama’s go it’s a far cry from NIGHT PEOPLE, THE THIRD MAN, or BERLIN EXPRESS.
January 14th, 2019 at 6:01 pm
You’re quite right David. Also, Barrymore’s character acts as if totalitarianism exists in only one form; that of the Soviet Union and that of all the political entities in the world, the only one with true moral authority is the Vatican. It’s an interesting premise for a character who we are to understand lived in Vienna from the Anschluss through the Allied victory
January 14th, 2019 at 6:03 pm
It is a great could have been, and I wish it were, however, and this is excluding Barrymore, who either does nothing right with her part or directed away, the cast, Leigh and Lawford especially, but Walter Pidgeon too, deserve a do over. And anytime I can say something nice about Peter, I feel good.
January 14th, 2019 at 8:18 pm
Barry,
Great cast, including Lawford, but it doesn’t work even as the quasi-religious propaganda it is supposed to be. It is one of those films you keep hoping will make a point, and then it’s over and you feel as if you missed something important.
I wonder if the novel gets it right?
That final scene of Pidgeon and company singing their little song is unintentionally as brutal as Glenn Ford’s “Keep the coffee hot,” at the end of THE BIG HEAT.
January 14th, 2019 at 9:03 pm
I didn’t think of Ford’s line in The Big Heat as brutal, but it sure could be read that way My take, his life is just going on.
Am I wrong? Could be.
Red Danube does not want to make me read the novel, but it was a play as well. Louis Calhern did his part on Broadway and here. Like to see it revived. Unlikely.