| 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 |
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Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Divided Heart is a 1954 Britishblack-and-whitedrama film directed byCharles Crichton and starringCornell Borchers,Yvonne Mitchell andArmin Dahlen. The film is based on a true story[1][2] of a child, whose father was a member ofSlovenian Partisans executed by Nazis and whose mother was deported to theAuschwitz 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 asLebensborn.
It was made atEaling Studios with sets designed by theart directorEdward Carrick.Location shooting took place aroundSt. Johann in Tirol inAustria.[3] The script was written byJack Whittingham andRichard Hughes. It was produced byMichael Truman and edited byPeter Bezencenet, with cinematography byOtto Heller and music byGeorges Auric.The Divided Heart was widely admired, and won threeBritish Academy Film Awards.
Crichton said he was "deeply emotionally involved with" the film which he said "just about broke even."[4]
During theSecond 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.
The Divided Heart was a popular and critical success, being highly praised for its sensitivity, emotional impact and the even-handedness with which it dealt with its subject matter. While noting that the film's ending reportedly left many viewers feeling disappointed and let down, critics conceded that it would have been impossible for a storyline of this nature to reach a conclusion which pleased everyone. In a contemporary review inThe New York Times, noted criticBosley Crowther wrote: "This is a bleak, heart-rending problem, as it is finely presented in this film with exceptionally sensitive understanding and scrupulous integrity. And the fact that it cannot be unraveled to the satisfaction of all...is simply an indication that a happy solution is beyond the power of a man as wise as Solomon—or even the author of the script—to hit upon."[5]
The Divided Heart was nominated in six categories at the1955 British Academy Film Awards and won three, with Mitchell being namedBest British Actress and Borchers picking up theBest Foreign Actress award. Separate awards for British and foreign actresses were given between 1952 and 1967 (after which they were combined into oneBest Actress award), and this was the only year in which both awards were won by actresses from the same film. The film also won theUN Award. It also received nominations in theBest Film andBest British Film categories, and Whittingham was nominated forBest British Screenplay.[6] In the U.S.,The Divided Heart was named among the top 5 foreign films at the1955 National Board of Review Awards.[7]