Unvarnished in the turmoil of the World War: Maria Schell as a partisan doctor on the Neretva
With this Austrian-Yugoslav war drama, the important director Helmut Käutner (1908-1980) achieved great success after a few failures. He was awarded the Prix International at the Cannes Film Festival in 1954. Absolutely deserved!
Dr. Helga Reinecke (Maria Schell), a young German doctor, serves in a military hospital in Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina) during World War II. There she falls in love with one of her patients, the robust sergeant Martin Berger (Carl Möhner). Before they have their first night together, Martin has to go out into the field again. There are repeated attacks by local partisans. But the lovers will soon see each other again. But just at the moment of their reunion, Helga is tricked by the partisan Militza (Barbara Rütting) and kidnapped into the mountains of the Neretva Valley. There, according to the wishes of the partisan leader Boro (Bernhard Wicki), she is supposed to provide medical care for the partisans. The doctor reluctantly agrees to this. She basically doesn't have a choice. Little by little, however, Helga realizes how much she is needed. And that as a doctor it shouldn't really matter who she cares for, as she should be there for all patients. When typhus broke out, new medication was urgently needed. Together with Militza, the doctor has to go on a dangerous mission - back to Mostar...
What an outstanding film! Filmed at the original location, with Serbo-Croatian-speaking actors, even Bernhard Wicki and Barbara Rütting are sensational as "acted locals". And then Maria Schell, who gives the best performance of her film career in this almost documentary-like scenario. She was rightly given an honorable mention at Cannes for her acting performance.
After this success, Helmut Käutner was back in business as a director, but all doors were now open for the actors too. Maria Schell (1926-2005) started a global career with offers from Paris, Cinecitta and Hollywood. Bernhard Wicki (1919-2000) was awarded a Golden Globe in 1960 as the director of "Die Brücke" (1959). The broad-shouldered Carl Möhner (1921-2005) was immediately hired for the global hit "Rififi" (1955) and was seen repeatedly in international films in the next decade. And Barbara Rütting (1927-2020) had wonderful appearances in "Time to Live, Time to Die" (1958), "Town Without Pity" (1962) and "Operation Crossbow" (1965).
In other roles you can see Tilla Durieux (1880-1971), who actually hid with the partisans during the Second World War, as the farmer's wife Mara and Horst Hächler, born in 1926, as the prisoner of war Lieutenant Scherer, who first insults Helga as a "traitor to the fatherland", before he lets her nurse him back to health. Horst Hächler was soon to become the first husband of the upcoming world star Maria Schell. In the 1970s he became the producer of various sex films and some Ganghofer remakes with his production company TV13. TV13 also co-produced the funny brawler "Zwei Schlitzohren in der gelben Hölle / Two Rascals in the Yellow Hell" (1974) with Brad Harris and GOLDEN GLOBE nominee Antonio Sabato.
Unfortunately, "The Last Bridge" has not been shown on TV or available on DVD for ages. That's why it's all the better that you can watch the film on YT at the moment. It is worth it! This film is an unfairly forgotten masterpiece!
