The Big Lift
"From the Ruins came Hope and Despair"
The Berlin Air Lift from the point of view of two Air Force NCOs who navigate romance in a bombed out post WW2 Germany.
"From the Ruins came Hope and Despair"
The Berlin Air Lift from the point of view of two Air Force NCOs who navigate romance in a bombed out post WW2 Germany.
Montgomery Clift
Sgt. 1st Class Danny MacCullough
Paul Douglas
MSgt. Henry "Hank" Kowalski
Cornell Borchers
Frederica Burkhardt
Bruni Löbel
Gerda
O.E. Hasse
Stieber
Dante V. Morel
Capt. Dante V. Morel
John R. Mason
Capt. John R. Mason
Gail R. Plush
Capt. Gail R. Plush
Mack Blevins
Capt. Mack Blevins
The Berlin Air Lift from the point of view of two Air Force NCOs who navigate romance in a bombed out post WW2 Germany.
This is certainly an authentic, atmospheric looking depiction of immediately post war Berlin as the erstwhile allies start carving up the spoils of victory. The story focusses on Monty Clift as "Danny", a flight engineer working for the US Air Force as the Soviets blockade all ground-based access to the bombed out city, and his pal Paul Douglas ("Kowalski") and follows their various escapades, loves and adventures during the short period of the siege. The story itself isn't really up to much and Clift always suited me better in a cowboy hat than in a military one - somehow he just isn't a particularly plausible soldier. Douglas, on the other hand has much more of a backstory to get our teeth into - his time in a POW camp has hardened his attitude to the German people (though the odd fling isn't entirely out of the question). There is some good aerial photography and that helps keep it interesting for a while, but at two hours long, the plot and characters start to wear quite thin and it begins to look more like a propaganda exercise for domestic consumption. Still, fans of Clift ought to enjoy it.
The "Memphis Belle" is a World War II bomber, piloted by a young crew on dangerous bombing raids into Europe. The crew only have to make one more bombing raid before they have finished their duty and can go home. In the briefing before their last flight, the crew discover that the target for the day is Bremen.
Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.
During the 1940s, a group of young men go off to war, leaving behind Ethel Ann, who is in love with one of them, Teddy. In modern-day Belfast, a man named Jimmy endeavors to return a ring found in the wreckage of a crashed plane. He travels to Michigan, where the grown Ethel Ann, who married another man after Teddy was killed in battle, now lives. Ethel Ann must decide whether to go with Jimmy to meet the soldier who last saw Teddy alive.
While Sergeant John Tyree is home on two weeks leave from Germany, he meets Savannah after he dives into the ocean to retrieve Savannah's purse that had fallen off a pier. John eventually falls in love with Savannah, who promises to write to him until he returns from overseas.
Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime’s victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with grief. Anna and Otto Quangel’s son has been killed at the front. This working class couple had long believed in the ‘Führer’ and followed him willingly, but now they realise that his promises are nothing but lies and deceit. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat.
An aspiring musician agrees to a marriage of convenience with a soon-to-deploy Marine, but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real.
During the Blitz of World War II, a female screenwriter works on a film celebrating England's resilience as a way to buoy a weary populace's spirits. Her efforts to dramatise the true story of two sisters who undertook their own maritime mission to rescue wounded soldiers are met with mixed feelings by a dismissive all-male staff.
The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.