The Search is an extremely absorbing, satisfying and most heart-rending drama of the highest sort. A film where many of the scenes were shot amidst the actual ruins of the post-war Germany cities, Nuremburg, Ingolstadt, and Wurzburg. The story concentrates on a young orphan boy who is a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. He is befriended by a young, earnest G.I. who takes a sincere interest in the wide-eyed child, soon teaching him to speak fluent English. He decides to search aimlessly for any surviving relatives of the boy, for soon he must return to America with the homeless child. Meanwhile, the boys mother is not only alive, but has been searching desperately for her only child. With the two separately searching for each other, the viewer soon realizes a very heart tugging reunion is about to take place. Even though this happy ending is predictable, nothing can prepare you for the overpowering impact of emotion. Rarely does a movie pull you completely into such an staggering emotional state, all due to a poignant story, delivered by the superb performances of Ivan Jandl, Montgomery Clift, and Jarmila Novotna. Top-notch performances are given by all supporting actors in this perfectly paced film. A must see story for many reasons, especially for understanding the pitiful realities of war and the impact on innocent surviving victims.

I first saw Fred Zinnemann's The Search when I was 12 years old. It was an experience that connected me for the first time with other children in different parts of the world whose suffering I could hardly have imagined. Aside from newspaper pictures of the war and the occasional newsreel, I had never before seen the real face of war, children with sallow looking faces, their clothes in tatters wandering among the bricks and stones of bombed out buildings, many without parents who had been through the most devastating experiences of war that one can imagine. It brought tears to my eyes then as well as each time I have seen it over the years.Set in the U.S. zone of Berlin shortly after World War II, The Search dramatizes the plight of the children left behind, children known euphemistically as DPs, displaced persons, orphans without a place to call home. The film focuses on nine-year-old Karel Malik (Ivan Jandl), the son of a doctor, who was sent to Auschwitz with his mother Hannah (Jarmila Novotna). Both Karel's father and sister were killed, and the boy was separated from his mother, saying goodbye to her through an iron fence, an image that remained deeply embedded in his mind. When the war was over, children by the busload were sent to temporary camps where attempts were made to reunite them with a surviving family member. A compassionate relief worker, Mrs. Murray (Aline MacMahon) questions the little Czech boy in tattered clothes, but he refuses to say anything except "Ich weiß nicht" (I don't know). Frightened by the sound of the exhaust from the ambulance bringing the children to an UNRRA camp, he escapes with a friend but he drowns in the river, leaving Karel alone to scavenge for food among the ruins. All this while, a tired but determined Hannah tries to find her son by going from camp to camp but to no avail. Fond of children, she eventually takes a job at a relief camp, hoping that one day her boy will turn up. Her hopes are raised when she finds a Jewish boy (Leopold Markowsky) who has taken the name of Karel Malik, but sadly it is not her son.Looking at a U.S. soldier sitting in his jeep eating lunch, the starving boy peeks from behind the crumbled facade of a building. The soldier, Steve, a bridge engineer played by Montgomery Clift, spots the boy and offers him some food but he is too frightened to accept. His appetite gets the better of his fear, however, and the two become tentative friends, although the boy refuses to talk or give his name. Steve persuades him to come back to the home that he shares with his roommate Fisher (Wendell Corey) where he names him "Jim" and begins a slow, uphill battle to gain his trust and teach him English. The performance by Clift, his first to be released, elevates the film to a new level and is one of the highlights of his too brief career. In the film's most heartbreaking moment, Jim asks Steve what a mother is.Though The Search is sentimental and perhaps ends too abruptly for modern tastes, it never seems forced or phony and every bit of its emotion is earned. Jarmila Novotna's portrayal of the mother is a performance of dignity. Though she never allows it to run her life, the pain is clearly written on her face,. Jandl, who received a Special Oscar but never acted again in a feature film, is remarkably real and natural, never once acting like a "movie child". The Search is a sad film but, in its demonstration of determination and courage, it is a rich and rewarding experience. Though the film depicts a particular moment in history, it strikes a universal tone, ringing true for millions of lost children who have been the collateral damage of war.

A seldom-seen socially conscious film from the late 1940's, Fred Zinneman's "The Search," has a semi-documentary feel that enhances the story of a boy searching for his mother in post-war Germany. Young Karel Malik, touchingly played by Ivan Jandl, has escaped Auschwitz, eluded orphan-camp supervisors, and now lives among the abstract skeletons of bombed-out buildings and churches. While Karel begs food from American soldiers, his mother, Jarmila Novotna, who has miraculously survived a concentration camp, is tirelessly searching for her son, the only possible survivor of her family. A soldier, Montgomery Clift, befriends Karel, teaches him English, and hopes to bring him to the United States. Meanwhile, in her seemingly futile search, the mother has reached the same city, where she agrees to work at a displaced children's camp. Although eight writers are credited with the screenplay, the story moves predictably and too often reverts to wordy explanations, while leaving lengthy foreign-language discourse without subtitles. However, the words are unnecessary, because the haunting faces of children who have emerged from years of horror speak volumes. Their reactions to painted red-crosses, military uniforms, and authority figures reveal more than dialog about their ordeals during the war. When exhaust fumes seep into a transport ambulance, the children react in panic. No explanation necessary.Filmed on location in the American sector of occupied Germany, "The Search" plays like a documentary for the first half hour, because the on-screen faces are relative unknowns. When Clift and then Wendell Corey appear, the realism dissipates somewhat, although the focus never wavers from the plight of mother and son or the traumatized children who are eager for a new life in Palestine. Emil Berna's black-and-white cinematography captures striking day and night images of a ruined German city and provides a visual record of the war's devastation. Robert Blum's music, however, is often overbearing and, especially during the conclusion, insists on emphasizing emotions that are already evident in the actors' faces. However, the score and a contrived ending are all that mar a remarkable filmed document that spotlights a largely forgotten post-World-War-II social issue.

I have to search my memory to find a movie where there is such a magic chemistry between a man and a little boy;they say Monty Clift used to rewrite his lines before the shoot.To write that he gave it his all is to diminish the thespian because there was always more to give .All his scenes -and it takes 40 minutes before he appears- are simply sensational.It makes you want to see (or as far as I'm concerned see again) all his other movies from " the heiress" and " a place in the sun" to "the misfits " "Freud " and my personal favorite "Suddenly last summer".to think that it was his debut on the silver screen! That said ,the first part of the movie ,which is Cliftless ,is by no means uninteresting;on the contrary ,it depicts,in a documentary way,the return of the children from the concentration camps ,and their fear of the uniforms ,of the ambulances (and the red cross on it).And let's not forget Jarmila Notvona as the mother hoping against hope and the always reliable Aline McMahon as the humane Mrs Murray.Some will say it's full of finer feelings but it's full of humaneness too.