Fine Vittorio De Sica-directed film about a dying German industrialist whose elder son has locked himself away for years, still in Nazi uniform, in a wing of their mansion. Gradually tension builds, with De Sica taking us from one dramatic height to another, until a wholly satisfactory ending is reached. The background music by Shostakovich sets the mood of the film off superbly, and the photography (Robert Girardi) conveys exquisitely the doom-laden atmosphere surrounding the Gerlach family. The camerawork has one magnificent moment, when the crouching body of the son is outlined against the night sky, as he finally breaks free from the mansion, and wanders bewildered into the affluent society of Hamburg.

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