Return from the Ashes

In a flash of incredible foresight, I recorded this gem as I watched it for the first time (maybe like 2 years ago...) The signature music has a waltzy, hypnotic cadence that completely draws you in, & a fascinating story unfolds in "post-war Paris", shot in appropriately atmospheric black & white. >From the very opening train scene, I was riveted. This one is on my shelf of films that I watch over & over again. Maximilian Schell is brilliantly handsome/wicked, as Stanislaus. I'd never even heard of Ingrid Thulin before -- someone on here mentioned her character, Michele, as "middle-aged" - that's not the impression I got. Michele is a jaw-droppingly gorgeous, dazzling blonde Swede{?}, who was married to a much older man, with a daughter. So she appears to be a young widow with a step-daughter in her late teens. On top of her late husband's sizable estate, Michele is also an X-ray technician. Ingrid Thulin is wonderful as Michele, combining just the right balance of high intellect yet vulnerability - very believable central character. Herbert Lom & Samantha Eggar also give stand-out performances.

I'm completely amazed that this incredible film has never "made it to video".... I'd really love to know who/how/why these decisions are made - seems like some really great work is allowed to sink without a trace.

Classy mid 60s thriller with plenty of meat in the burger and almost no cheese. "Return" goes to all the familiar places but never lingers long on cliches. I remember the theater cards in the lobby saying "Nobody enters the theater after Fabienne enters her bath". It's twisty and pushes the plausibility envelope some, but the ride is good enough to cover the bumps.

This is one of the last films to use lobby hype, and it didn't need any hype. Ingrid Thulin shines in a truly convincing way, what a talent. Samantha Eggar simmers with heat and hate. Schell and Lom both set their person bars a little higher in this one..

Bottom Line: Just Find It And Watch It.

I want this movie. I saw this as a child many times and this is my favorite movie of all time. Last time I knew it was going to be shown was when the Gulf War broke out and it never aired. I can't find it on video and it hasn't been on tv in 10 years. The plot, the actors, everything about this down to the black and white film was excellent. I have never seen another movie that I have enjoyed so much!

This film has suffered a strange fate. It used to be shown on tv all the time and was inevitably given two stars, when it is in fact a four-star movie. It is inconceivable that there is not plot summary here, so here goes:

Michelle, a currently single middle-aged medical doctor with a young daughter [already daring for the time], encounters the young fortune hunter Stanislaus in a casual meeting and makes him her boy toy. Michelle happens to be Jewish in Nazi-occupied Paris. When the Nazis do their thing, gentile Stan marries her in a moment of bravura that belies his true character. Nevertheless, they carry Michelle off to concentration camp. Several years after the war ends, she turns up and reunites with Charles, her former colleague at the hospital. She is so worn and haggard that she is hardly recognizable. Charles performs some plastic surgery, then she runs into Stan, who has taken up with Michelle's beautiful and still somewhat girlish daughter Gabby. Stan sees the striking resemblance and asks "Mme. Robert" if she will impersonate his supposedly late wife because French law won't give Gabby access to her mother's assets without a dead or alive body. Michelle agrees because she thinks it might be fun, but soon reveals herself as the real Michelle. Stan pretends to be reconciled with Michelle but plots with Gabby against her life.

This is the longest summary I have written because it is a very convoluted but masterfully managed plot. This is a much more convincing movie about mistaken/not mistaken identity than Hitchcock's "Vertigo." It is a three-character movie and all three are magnificent. I have left enough out of the summary to keep you in considerable suspense.

TCM gave this movie two stars. Ridiculous. I saw this film YEARS ago. I never forgot it and at one point, I tried to find out the name of it and was directed to another film. I suspected when I read the plot on the channel guide that this was the movie.

Set in flashback in pre-war Paris and in the present in post-war Paris, the story concerns a doctor, Michele, (beautiful Ingrid Thulin) hopelessly in love with Stanislaus, a chess-playing roué, excellently played by Maximillian Schell.

He doesn't pretend to love her - he likes her, but what he loves is her money. They marry, but because she's Jewish, she's picked up and sent to Dachau.

During the time she's gone, her husband becomes involved with her now grown-up albeit unstable stepdaughter Fabienne (Samantha Eggar). After the war ends, and Michele doesn't return, Fabienne and Stan assume she's dead. However, because of the laws in France they can't get their hands on her money.

The truth is that Michele is alive, but had to go to a sanitarium after the war to recover from her horrendous experiences in the camp. She's scarred and aged, and when she finally returns to Paris, she stays in a hotel and turns to an old colleague, Charles (Herbert Lom) to fix her up.

When Fabienne spots what she thinks is a Michele-lookalike (actually Michele), she comes up with a plan to have her stepmother return from the dead, with the imposter taking a cut.

A really good movie, very intriguing, with good performances all around and excellent photography. I'm so sick of being burned by TCM's ratings - four stars for trash and two stars for a fine movie like this (not all the time, but occasionally).

By the way, this story is based on a novel by Hubert Monteilhet called "Return from the Ashes," and was remade into the magnificent German film "Phoenix."

Highly recommended.