Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

mtloans First, I was amazed a film like this could be made in International Socialist (Communist) infested Hollywood in the late 1940's. Read the book "Hollywood Party" by Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley. A huge proportion of Hollywood's behind the scenes employees (not the stars) took their marching orders from Moscow. This was at the same time the studio heads were in cahoots with the National Socialists of Germany in making sure nothing bad was said about Herr Hitler.The funny part was the Ribbentrop/Molotov Non-aggression Pact where the Nazis and the Communists agreed to carve up Poland. Up until then the Hollywood myrmidons blindly followed the anti-Fascist line of Stalin. Stalin needed a word to describe his internal enemies so he picked "Fascist". I mean the loyal Communist apparatchiks he executed by the thousands were suddenly 'Fascist'? The word stuck both in the UUSR and the US and the blind left today who won't read history still use this epithet against everyone they disagree with, not remotely knowing the word's true meaning. Mussolini of course came from a famous Socialist family and was the editor of Italy's leading Socialist publication: "Avante". Fascism, Nazism, Communism -- all repressive Socialist political systems. Anyway, the hard leftists in Hollywood after denouncing Nazis and Fascists for a decade now had to praise them to the sky by orders from Stalin. Being the rotten people they were, they turned on a dime without even blinking - like Orcs.Why does this all matter? Well, Walter Pidgeon's character like 99% of Allied soldiers had little clue about the horrible nature of Communism given the propaganda about Uncle Joe Stalin being our ally. Pidgeon gets a first hand glimpse of the forced repatriation of USSR dissidents when the first man he tries to turn over, an elderly gentleman, requests that he pack a few things, walks into the next room and you hear an instantaneous gunshot - he had blown his brains out. Pidgeon takes his orders in turning over these poor people waiting to be executed or put in the Gulag back in the "Workers Paradise" but finally realizes with the help of Ethel Barrymore's Character - Mother Superior - that he is committing an awful crime against humanity and fights back. Just watch the rest of the movie as it plays out.If you want to learn more about the Allied treachery, read "Operation Keelhaul" by Julius Epstein.Hollywood is pretty craven - imagine a Spielberg type being given this script - no way he would make this film. He would never turn on his ideological masters. The enemy in Hollywood will always be Nazis and Fascists, the ideological allies of the Communists. Muslim terrorists could blow up Hollywood and the first script about that event would have the Muslims being replaced by the Waffen SS without even the slightest hesitation.

norise Possibly people who were not here at the beginning of the Cold War have difficulty appreciating this film. The film deserves at least an 8 for its skillful grappling with the issues which were to consume us for over forty years. The direction and script are tightly spun and intelligent; two characteristics which many later Cold War film lack. The Russian general is perhaps more caricatured than real, but this flaw is more than compensated for with sterling performances by Ethyl Barrymore and Walter Pigeon. It's also a great Christmas movie with the beautiful subplot of the little girl working the black market to survive. I wish the script were a little less rough on Angela Lansberry's character, but she somehow was able to pull it off. A good show. Recommended to be seen with "The Third Man"

blanche-2 "The Red Danube" is a strong 1949 film about post-war Europe, starring Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh, and Ethel Barrymore.There are several levels to this film. One is the agreement among the Allies to repatriate people to their native countries after the war. This film deals with the British sector, led by Pidgeon and his team, who are charged with aiding in the repatriation. Another level is the spiritual aspect - the Pidgeon character, "Hooky" Nicobar, has begun to doubt the existence of any entity that could allow such horror to happen in the world, including his own personal tragedy. And there's the love story between Maria (Janet Leigh), a Soviet ballerina, and Major 'Twingo' McPhimister.When displaced Russians would rather commit suicide than return to Russia, Hooky begins to doubt what Colonel Piniev (Louis Calhern) is telling him about what awaits these people back in the homeland. But he has to follow orders, so in spite of protests, he turns over ballerina Maria to the Soviets.MGM made a film later on, "Never Let Me Go" about a ballerina trying to get out of Russia; here a ballerina tries to keep from going back. This film has much more depth than "Never Let Me Go," and is more gritty, showing the old and weak DPs, unusable for slave labor, that the Russians foist upon the British sector toward the end of the film.The spiritual angle in this film is interesting - has God failed man, the nun (Ethel Barrymore) asks, or has man failed God? Is "following orders" when you know you're sending people to certain death sufficient? "The Red Danube" is well acted. Discovered by Norma Shearer, Janet Leigh had only been in films two years when she made this, but she had already racked up some experience. She's fresh-faced, sympathetic, and sweet as Maria Buhlen. Peter Lawford doesn't have much to do; Angela Lansbury is delightful as part of the team, and Walter Pidgeon does an excellent job as the troubled colonel. As the Mother Superior where Audrey Quail, the colonel, and Twingo are billeted, Ethel Barrymore gives a superb performance as a woman of implacable faith who tries to help Hooky with his crisis and aid Maria.I thought this was a very good film, thought-provoking, with good direction by George Sidney.

dbdumonteil This film is an anti-communist melodrama ,but in the light of recent events,who could blame the script writers.In 1993,Robert Enrico made "Vent D'Est " another anti-communist work : Russian soldiers and their families who had rebelled against Stalin took refuge in Liechenstein ;When the communists came to claim their compatriots,they promised them the moon ,just like the officer promised a bright future to Janet Leigh (prima ballerina in Moscow Ballets).Most of the poor lads followed them and were killed on the train en route to their native land.Religion does not walk hand in hand with communism ,and "the red Danude" takes place,most of the time,in a convent.But he made Barry Fitzgerald an atheist who lost his faith when his dear son was killed in action.He and Ethel Barrymore (in a sensational part of a mother superior with a big heart) are an unforgettable pair that may have inspired his "Heaven knows ,Mister Allison" to John Huston (1956).My favorite scene is on the train,when the starving people break into "Stille Nacht ,Heilige Nacht " on Christmas night.Sidney knows how to make the most of his effects.The death of Janet Leigh is a good example of ellipsis.And Sidney does not forget a comic relief: the way Angela Landsbury got fired by Francis L Sullivan (in a part as vile as in Dassin's "night and the city" ) is very funny.