The Divided Heart
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| The Divided Heart | |
|---|---|
 The Divided Heart UK release poster | |
| Directed by | Charles Crichton |
| Written by | Jack Whittingham Richard Hughes |
| Produced by | Michael Truman |
| Starring | Cornell Borchers Yvonne Mitchell Armin Dahlen Alexander Knox |
| Cinematography | Otto Heller |
| Edited by | Peter Bezencenet |
| Music by | Georges Auric |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | General Film Distributors Republic Pictures (US) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Divided Heart is a 1954 British black-and-white drama film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Cornell Borchers, Yvonne Mitchell and Armin Dahlen. The film is based on a true story[1][2] of a child, whose father was a member of Slovenian Partisans executed by Nazis and whose mother was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, while little Ivan was, like other 300 babies and young children from Slovenia, whose parents were declared Banditen by Nazis, sent to Germany in a Nazi program known as Lebensborn.
It was made at Ealing Studios with sets designed by the art director Edward Carrick. Location shooting took place around St. Johann in Tirol in Austria.[3] The script was written by Jack Whittingham and Richard Hughes. It was produced by Michael Truman and edited by Peter Bezencenet, with cinematography by Otto Heller and music by Georges Auric. The Divided Heart was widely admired, and won three British Academy Film Awards.
Crichton said he was "deeply emotionally involved with" the film which he said "just about broke even."[4]
During the Second World War, a three-year-old boy is found wandering alone in Germany. No family can be traced, and it is presumed that his parents and siblings have been casualties of war. The child is placed in an orphanage, from where he is subsequently adopted by a childless couple, whom he grows to love and accept as his parents. When the boy is 10 years old, his natural mother is found alive in Yugoslavia where she has survived the war as a refugee. She travels to Germany to claim her child, having lost her husband and two other children in the war. The film focuses on the moral dilemma of the situation: should the child remain with the adoptive parents who have given him a loving and happy home, or be returned to his natural mother who has lost everything else, and to what extent should the child's own wishes be taken into account? The case is finally referred to a three-man court, who will decide the child's future. As in the true story on which the film is based, he is returned to his biological mother.
Cast
- Cornell Borchers as Inga
- Yvonne Mitchell as Sonja
- Armin Dahlen as Franz
- Alexander Knox as Chief Justice
- Geoffrey Keen as Marks
- Liam Redmond as First Justice
- Eddie Byrne as Second Justice
- Theodore Bikel as Josip
- Pamela Stirling as Mlle. Poncet
- Michel Ray as Toni (aged 10)
- Martin Stephens as Hans
- André Mikhelson as Professor Miran
- John Schlesinger as the Ticket Collector
- Richard Molinas as Herr Pieter
- Krystyna Rumistrzewicz as Mitzi
- Mark Gübhard as Max
- John Welsh as Chief Marshall
- Alec McCowen as Reporter
- Marianne Walla as Matron
- Guy Deghy as Schoolteacher
- Philo Hauser as Schoolteacher
- Carl Duering as Postman
Production
The film was made through Ealing Studios, financed by the Rank Organisation.[5]