About 25 years ago, I bought a record called "Movies and Me" featuring themes from movies composed by John Dankworth. I knew "Darling" and "The Servant" but I had never heard of the one I liked best: the theme from "Return from the Ashes". Much later, when I finally saw the movie, I realised how perfectly that lilting melody married with the film."Return from the Ashes" works despite credulity being stretched to breaking point along the way. The true quality of this film is not revealed from a reading of the plot. The movie plays far better than it reads.Shortly before WW2 in Paris, Michelle Wolf, a doctor played by Ingrid Thulin meets a Polish refugee, Stanislaus Pilgrin played by Maximilian Schell. Although warned that he is only after her money, she falls in love with him. When the Germans capture Paris, Stanislaus – in his self-confessed, one gallant act of his life – marries Michelle, who is Jewish, to stop her being deported by the Nazis. But she is sent to a concentration camp anyway.Years later, Michelle returns to Paris under an assumed name. But she is a changed woman emotionally and physically. Thought to be dead, no one recognises her at first. Although she is reacquainted with Stanislaus and her stepdaughter, the beautiful Fabi, played by Samantha Eggar, they believe that she simply bears a strong resemblance to the Michelle they knew. They want her to play Michelle in a complicated plot to retrieve funds that have been frozen since the war. Michelle goes along with the plan not realising that Fabi and Stanislaus have become lovers.After revealing her true identity, Michelle moves into her old apartment with both Stanislaus and Fabi. From there the story becomes darker and darker. After many developments, the movie still has enough energy left to deliver one final twist at the end."Return from the Ashes" boasts three of the most attractive stars you are likely to see in one movie – Ingrid Thulin, Maximilian Schell and Samantha Eggar. For me, Ingrid Thulin is the standout. Beautiful, calm and sophisticated, she gave the impression that there was a lot more going on beneath the surface. It's surprising Hollywood didn't seek her out more often – possibly she would have made one of the great Hitchcock stars – in an interview, he once singled her out as the epitome of the kind of sexiness he admired, especially in her work for Ingmar Bergman.Despite a "Vertigo" like sequence when Michelle is coached to play what is in reality herself, "Return from the Ashes" does not seem overly influenced by either Hitchcock or film noir. The dramatic use of black and white and the moody quality of the film is due to J. Lee Thompson's personal style. The man who made "Cape Fear" proved once again that he could make a thriller to stand with the best of them.

Actually the advertising gimmick was "No one will be allowed to LEAVE the theatre" once the "shattering" bath scene has begun - with an illustration of theatre doors being locked (I'm pretty sure that would have been against the law even then!). At the time this made me think the movie was a slightly highbrow gore thriller of the "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" or "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" stamp - if not far, far worse. Seeing the film years later . how on earth did anyone think up such a cheesy marketing gimmick for a respectable drama?

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.

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!