Synopsis
Based on a short story which originally appeared in The New Yorker, this film stars David Niven (The Guns of Navarone, Separate Tables) as stiff-necked British Army Major Burnside, charged with closing a displaced persons camp in occupied Austria immediately following World War II. Burnside is confounded by his new duties he has a romantic attachment to the front and his charges include refugees from all over Europe and the USSR, as well as the very green Lt. Pilkington (John Hurt, 10 Rillington Place), a language specialist whose command of Latin is unlikely to help speed up the processing of the displaced. Pilkington enlists Janovic (Topol, Fiddler on the Roof), a multi-lingual gypsy and con-man, to serve as camp interpreter. Janovic takes on the role of mediator and fixer both in the camp and in the countryside. When the commander of the Russian Zone questions Burnside about Janovic, and suggests he may have been a Russian deserter, Burnside is faced with making a decision about Janovic's fate. This complex, funny, and poignant tale about the remnants of war also features Anthony Quayle (The Guns of Navarone) and Anna Karina (Pierrot le Fou). Newly remastered.