The Divided Heart

A knock at their door one evening throws the lives of "Inga" (Cornell Borchers) and husband "Franz" (Armin Dahlen) into turmoil. It's a woman from the post war child repatriation division there to try and establish where they got there son "Toni" (Michel Ray) from. They assure her they adopted him legally but after a few rudimentary questions they inform them that his mother "Sonja" (Yvonne Mitchell) wants him to live with her. A court must decide what happens next, and for the remainder of the film we watch as both the "bread" mother and the "blood" mother must metaphorically fight it out. It's delicately portrayed making it quite distressing to watch at times. The three judges - Alexander Knox, Liam Redmond and Eddie Byrne listen carefully and compassionately and as the case unfolds we, like them, realise that there can be no clear winners here - unless it's the ten year old boy who knows little of his wartime life in Slovakia but only of his current life with his new German parents. Perhaps he could decide? He's very young, though - is he competent to make such a choice? Charles Crichton directs with sympathy and he uses Geoffrey Keen quite effectively as a character trying to broker the best from a bad scenario - even if the process is really about securing the best for "Toni". There's a paucity of dialogue here, most of the scenario being presented as objectively as possible allowing us to make our own evaluation. It's touching and exposes a wartime topic not often addressed in cinema.

Great story & acting especially knowing that situations like this would have happened at the end of WW2.

I awarded this film 6/10 having seen it today 20/8/15 on "London Live" TV station who have been running a season of Ealing films from 2.00p.m on most weekdays.For a 69 year old this was the first time I saw this film which I found moving when a 10 year old Slovenian boy has to decide with whom he should live, either his natural mother or German adoptive parents.World War II caused many sad cases of orphans who had lost either or both their natural parents and a legal section of the U.S. War Commission as occupying country in West Germany had to make the decision whether to repatriate children once their natural parents had been found.This was decided in the film by a trio of international judges standing in for King Soloman.

Yvonne Mitchell plays the Slovenian mother and I was impressed how she appeared to speak Slovanese and even Geoffrey Keen who played the administrator who mediates between the rival mothers.I assume a real Slovenian did the voice track with Yvonne lip-syncing to the spoken sound track.It would have been more realistic however if the German adoptive parents had spoken German in their scenes together.No spoiler from me about which of the mothers won the custody battle but the moral arguments from the three judges I found convincing.

This is a heart-rending story illustrating the overwhelming problem after the war of dislocated persons, in this case children. The film is almost documentary in character, going into the fates of two mothers claiming the same child, the real mother losing her boy because of the war, and a German childless mother adopting him after the war and bringing him up as a German. Which mother should have the child? Why not let the child decide himself, but here is the divided heart. He wants to stick with one and still not do without the other. Alexander Knox is the one among the three judges who advocates the child's right to decide his own future, while the arguments of the other two American judges are a little difficult to understand. Anyway, it's a fascinating story in its close adherence to reality, and Yvonne Mitchell as the Slovenian mother (speaking fluently Slovenian) makes a lasting impression. She is willing to give up her child for the child's own sake, while the German adoptive mother has nothing to argue with except her feelings. It's a very difficult case and dilemma, and it should maybe be taken for certain, that the boy, in the unique position of having two mothers, would do his best to keep them both.

I went to see this film when I was about 15 yrs old. It made a big impression on me because I was very idealistic then. The film was honestly and earnestly made, straight as a die, that was its charm. The fact is it only cost 1/- to get in the cinema to see it. In todays money that is about 5p. The film belongs in that era of course, the fifties. I have never fogotten the little boy in court trying to decide which parent he should choose to be with. He conveyed the correct personal inner torment of knowing he should choose his real mother, but being so used to his adoptive one.