User reviews

Four U.S soldiers at an army base in Germany are charged with a gang rape and the prosecutor is asking for the death penalty as demanded by public outrage and the girl's father, a leading citizen of the town. Although sure of their guilt, the defending lawyer is also sure that they do not deserve the death penalty. He wants to plea bargain, but he'll dig up dirt and tear the girl apart on the witness stand if that's what it takes to save the men. No person or event in the story is as innocent as it seems at first - not the girl, the town, the judicial process, or even the simple brutality of the four men.

The movie's weaknesses, unfortunately, are in the actual realization of this excellent story. The screenplay is very uneven, over-developing some of the complexities while short-changing others. The use of a voice-over is a clever way to avoid having to subtitle the German speaking scenes, but as implemented it is a clumsy shortcut to giving us information which should have been written into the action. Most unfortunate is the poor choice of music. It blatantly attempts to force its particular mood on the viewer in total discordance with the more subtle manner in which the story is presented. On the bright side, the acting is good and the main point of the story - the brutal treatment of the girl on the witness stand and by the town - is not diluted by any of these problems, making this a movie well worth watching.

Parts of Town Without Pity are really good, but there are two elements that nearly ruin the film: the ridiculous Oscar-nominated title song and subsequent repetitive theme, and the frequent, superfluous narration by Barbara Rutting. She plays a reporter in the film, so I can only imagine the screenwriters wanted to make the audience think she was writing an article that turned into the film, but it was extremely distracting. The opening scene shows Christine Kauffman and her boyfriend Gerhart Lippert swimming, talking, and sunbathing. Town Without Pity is a German film, and when the German cast speaks in their native tongue, the cold, unexpressive narration translates what they're saying for the English speakers in the audience. Why didn't they substitute narration for subtitles? Every time Barbara's irritating voice cut in, I was taken out of the extremely dramatic, emotional situation.

As tastefully as it can be shown, while still showing exactly what happened, the film shows four American soldiers rape Christine in the beginning scene. The rest of the film involves the trial and the emotional damages Christine and her family suffer throughout the process. She gives a fantastic performance, and were it not for the narration, my heart would have absolutely broken for her.

Kirk Douglas plays the soldiers' attorney, and he also gives a wonderful performance. He's disgusted by his clients but can't refuse his assignment, and he tries to be as sympathetic to Christine as possible. There's a scene in which Kirk is interviewing Christine, with a physical translator present, and he learns more information about the case. He and Christine only communicate with their eyes because they don't want a record of what they're trying to say, and it's incredibly powerful. The majority of Kirk's performance is dual-focused: he's forced to say one thing, but his heart makes his eyes say something different.

Obviously, because of the heavy subject matter, this movie won't be for everyone. However, since the film was made in 1961, you can rest assured the opening scene isn't graphic. If you like watching very dramatic, non-feel-good movies just to appreciate the acting-I do, too-then you'll want to rent this one. You'll also want to pop in something lighter afterwards, like Pillow Talk.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, since there's a rape scene and some heavy subject matter, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

As an illustration of the theme of "a town without pity," this film does a fine job, but as an accurate reflection of the attitude of the Allied military authorities under occupied Germany toward their soldiers who committed rape, it presents far too white-washed a picture. According to Frederic Taylor's "Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany," the American military cared very little about punishing American soldiers who raped German women--in fact, about punishing American soldiers who raped women in any part of Europe after D- Day. Rapes committed in Britain were punished according to the book, but it was different in Germany. It was not the norm that the military authorities brought rapists to trial with the threat of the death penalty hanging over their heads. Most received a slap on the wrist, removal back to Britain, or nothing. There was not a single execution of an Allied soldier for rape in occupied Germany.

And rape was common. Allied soldiers were not as brutal as Soviet soldiers, who were looking for revenge after the terrible atrocities committed by the Germans in the east, but attacking German women was far from unusual in the west. The Soviets had their special reasons beyond the usual macho attitude of "take advantage because you can." (Not all men, of course, not all soldiers are like this, but there always seems to be a small percentage). The Soviets had much, much more to motivate them, the terrible deeds that German soldiers had subjected their country, their women, children and old people to. They were burning to wreak revenge, to rape, torture and humiliate German women. Allied soldiers had nothing on that scale to revenge, but some of them, too, looted and raped. Read "Exorcising Hitler;" it's an eye-opener.

"Town Without Pity" leaves the impression that rape was rare and subject to severe punishment. Not true. Enough time has passed that we are probably ready to face some of the truth of what we did, as well as what the Germans and Soviets did.

Town without Kirk Douglas would have been mediocre at best; but with him, the film elevates itself to a decent courtroom drama. In a town that has only one song on its Jukebox (Gene Pitney's Town Without Pity written by Dmitri Tiomkin, the talented film score creator), a rape takes place by four soldiers near a river. Or was it a rape? Eventually, everything comes out in the courtroom, and Douglas has to savagely cross-examine the victim to save one or more of the defendents from the death penalty. Nothing out of the ordinary in the courtroom scenes, but the subplots keep our interest piqued. Worth viewing.

A breathlessly cynical and relentlessly bleak movie about how crappy mankind is. Have fun.

But seriously, "Town without Pity" is pretty well made, but I don't know what it has to say exactly. Kirk Douglas is good as a defense attorney whose job it is to acquit four U.S. soldiers accused of raping a German girl, and he's partially successful -- they're not acquitted, but they're not sentenced to death, which is what the prosecution was going for. The movie is about how ugly the justice process is, especially for the wronged; in order to prove they mens' innocence, Douglas is forced to do what he can to undermine the girl's character and brand her a, shall we say, lady of loose morals? Mostly, the movie suffers from being in a bad mood, and it kind of put me in a bad mood watching it.

"Town without Pity" was directed by Gottfried Reinhardt, so maybe it was meant to be a defensive gut punch to America from a Germany still feeling contrite about WWII? Sort of a "ok, so what Germany did was horrible, but see how horrible Americans can be too?" I don't know. All I know is that the movie isn't badly made, but I didn't really enjoy it.

The title song received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song in 1961, and I hope you like it, because it plays nearly non-stop during the entire duration of the movie.

Grade: B+