33 reviews
This Return Deserves a Comeback
Certain films travel just below the radar. "Return from the Ashes" is such a film. The ones who've seen it never forget it but somehow it's nowhere to be found. Never on video and so far not on DVD. I'm not going to tell you about the devilish plot because that's most of the pleasure of seeing it for the first time. Just let me wet your appetite by saying that Maximilian Schell plays a young amoral polish guy who seduces a French, older, wealthy widow, played for real by a great Ingrid Thulin. The action takes place at the dawn of the German occupation. She is Jewish he is not. When Schell asks her to marry him, she laughs it off as a surprisingly conventional request but he means it saying "At this time is not convention but defiance" So he marries the older Jewish woman...that's all I'm going to tell you about the story. Samantha Eggar, beautiful and skinny gives a powerful performance of seductive evilness. She is a stand out of major proportions. The ending seems a bit of a commercial concession but it doesn't spoil the cleverly tailored plot. If you see it announced on late night TV, set up your VCR or whatever contraption at your disposal.
- arichmondfwc
- Sep 16, 2005
- Permalink
Better with every viewing
TCM keeps screwing up their ratings
TCM gave this movie two stars. Ridiculous. I saw this film YEARS ago. I never forgot it and at one point, I tried to find out the name of it and was directed to another film. I suspected when I read the plot on the channel guide that this was the movie.
Set in flashback in pre-war Paris and in the present in post-war Paris, the story concerns a doctor, Michele, (beautiful Ingrid Thulin) hopelessly in love with Stanislaus, a chess-playing roué, excellently played by Maximillian Schell. He doesn't pretend to love her - he likes her, but what he loves is her money. They marry, but because she's Jewish, she's picked up and sent to Dachau.
During the time she's gone, her husband becomes involved with her now grown-up albeit unstable stepdaughter Fabienne (Samantha Eggar). After the war ends, and Michele doesn't return, Fabienne and Stan assume she's dead. However, because of the laws in France they can't get their hands on her money.
The truth is that Michele is alive, but had to go to a sanitarium after the war to recover from her horrendous experiences in the camp. She's scarred and aged, and when she finally returns to Paris, she stays in a hotel and turns to an old colleague, Charles (Herbert Lom) to fix her up.
When Fabienne spots what she thinks is a Michele-lookalike (actually Michele), she comes up with a plan to have her stepmother return from the dead, with the imposter taking a cut.
A really good movie, very intriguing, with good performances all around and excellent photography. I'm so sick of being burned by TCM's ratings - four stars for trash and two stars for a fine movie like this (not all the time, but occasionally).
By the way, this story is based on a novel by Hubert Monteilhet called "Return from the Ashes," and was remade into the magnificent German film "Phoenix."
Highly recommended.
Set in flashback in pre-war Paris and in the present in post-war Paris, the story concerns a doctor, Michele, (beautiful Ingrid Thulin) hopelessly in love with Stanislaus, a chess-playing roué, excellently played by Maximillian Schell. He doesn't pretend to love her - he likes her, but what he loves is her money. They marry, but because she's Jewish, she's picked up and sent to Dachau.
During the time she's gone, her husband becomes involved with her now grown-up albeit unstable stepdaughter Fabienne (Samantha Eggar). After the war ends, and Michele doesn't return, Fabienne and Stan assume she's dead. However, because of the laws in France they can't get their hands on her money.
The truth is that Michele is alive, but had to go to a sanitarium after the war to recover from her horrendous experiences in the camp. She's scarred and aged, and when she finally returns to Paris, she stays in a hotel and turns to an old colleague, Charles (Herbert Lom) to fix her up.
When Fabienne spots what she thinks is a Michele-lookalike (actually Michele), she comes up with a plan to have her stepmother return from the dead, with the imposter taking a cut.
A really good movie, very intriguing, with good performances all around and excellent photography. I'm so sick of being burned by TCM's ratings - four stars for trash and two stars for a fine movie like this (not all the time, but occasionally).
By the way, this story is based on a novel by Hubert Monteilhet called "Return from the Ashes," and was remade into the magnificent German film "Phoenix."
Highly recommended.
Captivating & Engrossing
In a flash of incredible foresight, I recorded this gem as I watched it for the first time (maybe like 2 years ago...) The signature music has a waltzy, hypnotic cadence that completely draws you in, & a fascinating story unfolds in "post-war Paris", shot in appropriately atmospheric black & white. >From the very opening train scene, I was riveted. This one is on my shelf of films that I watch over & over again. Maximilian Schell is brilliantly handsome/wicked, as Stanislaus. I'd never even heard of Ingrid Thulin before -- someone on here mentioned her character, Michele, as "middle-aged" - that's not the impression I got. Michele is a jaw-droppingly gorgeous, dazzling blonde Swede{?}, who was married to a much older man, with a daughter. So she appears to be a young widow with a step-daughter in her late teens. On top of her late husband's sizable estate, Michele is also an X-ray technician. Ingrid Thulin is wonderful as Michele, combining just the right balance of high intellect yet vulnerability - very believable central character. Herbert Lom & Samantha Eggar also give stand-out performances.
I'm completely amazed that this incredible film has never "made it to video".... I'd really love to know who/how/why these decisions are made - seems like some really great work is allowed to sink without a trace.
I'm completely amazed that this incredible film has never "made it to video".... I'd really love to know who/how/why these decisions are made - seems like some really great work is allowed to sink without a trace.
A Neat Theatrical Melodrama...and Inspector Dreyfus finally is a good guy
- theowinthrop
- Oct 26, 2005
- Permalink
If there is no God, no Devil, everything is permissable.
Following the excellent 'Cape Fear' the films of J. Lee Thompson represent a mixed bag to say the least. To be fair both 'Taras Bulba' and 'McKennas's Gold' were harmed by drastic editing but his other films simply missed the mark. This one, adapted from the novel of Hubert Moulheilhet, comes close and benefits from an excellent cast. The stupendous Maximilian Schell, brother of the equally talented Maria, is riveting as a charming, despicable sociopath. Ingrid Thulin is very touching as one who cannot or will not recognise her husband's worthlessnes until it is almost too late. Her voice is dubbed however and the voice they have given her does not seem to gel somehow. Anyway, her best work by far is for Ingmar Bergman in her native tongue. Samantha Eggar is suitably vixenish and Herbert Lom as always immaculate. Individual scenes are compelling and the film holds ones attention despite the slow pace. The film benefits not at all from John Dankworth's irritating score.
- brogmiller
- May 13, 2020
- Permalink
A little on the daft side but good fun nevertheless.
J. Lee Thompson may have been only a jobbing director but he was one of the best, graduating from British studio pictures in the fifties to international hits such as "Ice Cold in Alex", "Northwest Frontier" and "The Guns of Navarone". The latter earned him an Oscar nomination and the chance to work almost exclusively in America where he made "Cape Fear", one of the best thrillers of the sixties. In 1965 he made another first-rate thriller, "Return from the Ashes", which used the War and the Holocaust as jumping off points for an almost Hitchcockian tale of murder and greed, set in Paris but filmed in a British studio with an international cast.
If the plot is more than a little convoluted, Thompson's handling of Julius Epstein's fine script and first-rate performances from Maximilian Schell, Ingrid Thulin and Samantha Eggar go a long way in making this one of his most entertaining films. Thulin is the rich Jewish doctor, thought to have died in a concentration camp, Schell the gigolo who marries her for her money and Eggar the duplicitous daughter who's having an affair with Schell and the good thing is it doesn't quite go the way you expect it to. It's also superbly shot in widescreen black and white by Christopher Challis and is certainly worth seeing.
If the plot is more than a little convoluted, Thompson's handling of Julius Epstein's fine script and first-rate performances from Maximilian Schell, Ingrid Thulin and Samantha Eggar go a long way in making this one of his most entertaining films. Thulin is the rich Jewish doctor, thought to have died in a concentration camp, Schell the gigolo who marries her for her money and Eggar the duplicitous daughter who's having an affair with Schell and the good thing is it doesn't quite go the way you expect it to. It's also superbly shot in widescreen black and white by Christopher Challis and is certainly worth seeing.
- MOscarbradley
- Mar 11, 2020
- Permalink
Cocky Thriller!
Once upon a time, before the giallos and the slasher films took over, there was an undercurrent of clever thrillers ... where you knew who had done it, but the question was could they get away with it? The earliest one I can remember is The Unsuspected with Claude Raines as a DJ with a mission ... In the '60's we had director William Castle's twisted thrillers (Homicidal is my favorite) and Bette Davis as Baby Jane and Charlotte ... then along came Return from the Ashes, at about the same time as Bunny Lake Is Missing. Ladies and gentlemen, RftA is a stunning thriller which will keep you enthralled from the expositionary opening to the wonderfully complex plot developments. Why is this not available to viewers today? This is a movie I would like to show friends. Hard to believe it was 40 + years ago I sat in a darkened theater enraptured by the clever plot with more twists and turns than you could believe. If you see this movie in any listings, record it! Ingrid Thulin, Samantha Eggar and Maximilian Schell pull out all the stops but they make you BELIEVE the lurid goings-on. Too bad movie makers can't look at these old classics and learn how to pace and plot a good thriller.
Return from the Ashes
Maximilian Schell is good in this as the pretty odious "Pilgrin". He is an intellectual philanderer whom, upon the Nazi invasion of Poland, marries the wealthy Jewish "Mischa" (Ingrid Thulin). She is incarcerated in a concentration camp, presumed dead, but after the war meets her husband again only to discover that has taken up with her step-daughter Samantha Eggar ("Fabienne") and that he will stop at very little to get hold of what is left of her fortune. It's odd to see a film about Nazis and their horrendous treatment of the Jews and for that not to be the most toxic element of a film. That accolade must go to Schell, and to the really unlikeable Eggar - a pair who really do rather deserve each there. The film is just too long, there are too many sagging points and the score from jazz legend John Dankworth drags it down, too; but it does have a decent story, is well produced and the acting is effective too.
- CinemaSerf
- Mar 25, 2023
- Permalink
Fascinating, Well-crafted Thriller and Character Study
- Bearauburn
- Nov 20, 2013
- Permalink
Like mother, like stepdaughter
It's a rare movie that has a chess master scoring with women as easily as Stanislav Pilgrin (Maximilian Schell) does, but it sets you up for a movie where human motivations require suspension of disbelief.
Just before Paris falls to the Nazis, he marries his lover, Michele Wolf (Ingrid Thulin), a wealthy Jewish physician who'd be better off with her colleague Charles Bovard (Herbert Lom). But never mind. She's smitten with Stan, even though she is aware of his professed venality: "If there is no God, no devil, no heaven, no hell, and no immortality, then anything is permissible."
Their married life lasts only minutes: as they exit the ceremony, she's abruptly seized and deported to Dachau. Stan remains in Paris, living in her sumptuous 'hôtel particulier' with their stepdaughter, the horny sociopath Fabi (Samantha Eggar), who takes Michele's place in Stan's bed. (FWIW, Stan and Fabi were even worse in the original novel, wherein he informs on his Jewish wife to the Nazis, and she isn't MIchele's stepdaughter, she's her natural daughter by a first marriage.)
Michele survives Dachau, and eventually returns to Paris. Twists and turns ensue, and you have to swallow a lot of bilge to believe that the intelligent, sophisticated Dr. Wolf would put up with Stan's hurtful behavior. But it's entertaining bilge. All four principal actors manage to be persuasive in the preposterous plot. Thulin is particularly good, but Schell just nails the vain, greedy Pilgin. Note the way he admires his luxurious head of hair every time he catches his reflection, and grooms it meticulously. The very essence of a self-obsessed man.
Just before Paris falls to the Nazis, he marries his lover, Michele Wolf (Ingrid Thulin), a wealthy Jewish physician who'd be better off with her colleague Charles Bovard (Herbert Lom). But never mind. She's smitten with Stan, even though she is aware of his professed venality: "If there is no God, no devil, no heaven, no hell, and no immortality, then anything is permissible."
Their married life lasts only minutes: as they exit the ceremony, she's abruptly seized and deported to Dachau. Stan remains in Paris, living in her sumptuous 'hôtel particulier' with their stepdaughter, the horny sociopath Fabi (Samantha Eggar), who takes Michele's place in Stan's bed. (FWIW, Stan and Fabi were even worse in the original novel, wherein he informs on his Jewish wife to the Nazis, and she isn't MIchele's stepdaughter, she's her natural daughter by a first marriage.)
Michele survives Dachau, and eventually returns to Paris. Twists and turns ensue, and you have to swallow a lot of bilge to believe that the intelligent, sophisticated Dr. Wolf would put up with Stan's hurtful behavior. But it's entertaining bilge. All four principal actors manage to be persuasive in the preposterous plot. Thulin is particularly good, but Schell just nails the vain, greedy Pilgin. Note the way he admires his luxurious head of hair every time he catches his reflection, and grooms it meticulously. The very essence of a self-obsessed man.
True excellence. An amazing film.
This is a rare beauty of a film. (PLEASE release it on DVD). The film is a character study, and a masterful thriller. I saw on TV way back in the 60's and it has haunted me since. The opening scene, on a train, a boy is killed. The star ( the beautiful Ingrid Thulin) looks off in a "thousand-year" stare. She does not react to the tragedy. The camera pans back, and you see the number tattooed on her arm.
The film is shot, masterfully, in post-war Paris. People are just beginning to cope with life again, after the Nazi occupation. The Doctor returns to work, and her Husband (Maximilian Schell,in a career-defining role), hires her to impersonate his wife, whom he believes to be dead.
The gorgeous Samantha Eggar, slinks around the house. Oozing with sexuality, you drool over her character.
After some plot twists, including the fabled bath scene, you are drawn into the plot. The film continues with some nail-biting, and the conclusion is just fine.
I will scour my TV listings, and pray it comes back on!
The film is shot, masterfully, in post-war Paris. People are just beginning to cope with life again, after the Nazi occupation. The Doctor returns to work, and her Husband (Maximilian Schell,in a career-defining role), hires her to impersonate his wife, whom he believes to be dead.
The gorgeous Samantha Eggar, slinks around the house. Oozing with sexuality, you drool over her character.
After some plot twists, including the fabled bath scene, you are drawn into the plot. The film continues with some nail-biting, and the conclusion is just fine.
I will scour my TV listings, and pray it comes back on!
1965-Style Entertainment
Here's a sharp-focus, widescreen black & white thriller from 1965. If you're a fan of "Mirage," "My Blood Runs Cold," "Two on a Guillotine," etc., you'll understand and won't be disappointed. Otherwise, things are a bit precarious. Though the film takes place in 1945, clothes and hairstyles are strictly 1965. The low budget is painfully obvious, the studio-bound sets of MGM's British Borehamwood Studios are poor stand-ins for Paris. Ingrid Thulin and Maximilian Schell give fine performances. Samantha Eggar looks beautiful but lacks depth. Director J. Lee Thompson did a fine job with the original 1962 "Cape Fear," a tense drama that holds up well. "Return From the Ashes" just isn't as suspenseful or clever as it tries to be. Plus, its casual handling of the sensitive subject of a Holocaust survivor is clumsy. The film, however, is entertaining nonetheless.
Max Schell: Cad.
This must be what's known as "an international production", directed by a Brit and starring a Swede, a Czech, an Austrian, and another Brit, shot in Paris. The title refers to the heroine's adjustment to life and former loves after imprisonment in a concentration camp.
Ingrid Thulin is a Jewish doctor living in Paris at the outbreak of the war, and Maximillian Schell is her ambitious, chess-playing, Polish paramour. He's needy; she's generous. When war is declared he finally asks her to marry him despite her being Jewish. She's delighted but remarks that she'd be happier if he were marrying her because he loves her, not because he hates the Germans. Schell corrects her. To have married her before would have been conforming. Now he's being defiant. It's an interesting exchange. It takes place while another doctor, Herbert Lom, is standing nearby. Lom -- how you say? -- loves her from afar.
A couple of weakness might as well be gotten out of the way. The musical score is immemorably atonal. Not much effort has been put into period realism. Garments and hair styles look like garments and hair styles looked in 1965. The music is more irritating that evocative, and the director, J. Lee Thompson, uses far too many gigantic close ups, as if this film were designed for the television screen. The makeup underscores what for any perceptive viewer doesn't need underscoring.
On Thulin's return from the concentration camps, her eyes have been turned into two black holes and her hair dusted with flour. It's a pretty careless handling of a subject that deserves very careful attention. However, Lom, who still loves her, restores her to at least a semblance of her former beauty. She still can't bring herself to contact Schell, now living in Paris with Thulin's step daughter, Semantha Eggar, from a previous marriage. As you can see, it's a little complicated. Lom loves Thulin, but Thulin loves Schell, who is shacked up with Eggar and who may or may not have EVER loved Thulin, to whom he is still married, although he's convinced she's dead.
It get even MORE complicated. Thulin had a lot of money but since her remains were never identified -- how could they be? -- the money that should go to her step daughter, Eggar, is being withheld by the French government. So Schell and Eggar meet Thulin and are struck by the resemblance to Schell's wife, still thought to be deceased. They try to enlist her aid in squeezing the money out of the government by having Thulin pretend to be Schell's wife. I hope you're following all this.
So all Thulin has to do, Schell insists anxiously, is pose as his wife "for a short time -- a RELATIVELY short time", forge a few papers in her handwriting, little technicalities like that. Thulin's response is polite enough. That's fine for him. He gets thirty million franks but what does she get? Thirty years in prison. But she's dealing with a determined con man who can make anything sound reasonable. "Oh, come ON, not thirty YEARS!" He scoffs, as if it might only be TWENTY years. She's curious, revolted, and shocked. Both Schell and Eggar soon reveal themselves to be scurrilous weasels, just out for the money.
Thulin, for some reason, finally reveals her true identity and Schell is the consummate manipulator. He gawks and then, angry, almost in tears, he asks, "How could you DO this to me. All those years I've WAITED." It would be funny if Schell played it that way, but he does it straight.
Schell prefers Eggar AND the money, and Thulin now is merely in the way. Two greedy bastards and one innocent victim, a set up for a murder. But I'll get off the plot at this point.
Among the more interesting scenes is the one in which Schell welcomes Thulin (her real identity now restored) to their former residence. A toast! And with slivovitz, sometimes called "plum brandy" for reasons I've never been able to discern because, although it's made from the whole plum, it doesn't taste at all plummy, unless kerosene is plummy. Slivovitz has to be experienced to be believed. I once found myself stranded in a small Macedonian city and contacted the local authorities, who had never met an American. They happily opened the discussion with slivovitz. I must have achieved my goal, however drunk I became, because I notice I'm no longer in Skopje.
Ingrid Thulin is a pretty woman but he features suggest intelligence rather than the beauty of a fashion model. Her irises are a sharp black and her nose is as broad at the top as it is at the bottom. Her voice with its diaphanous Scandinavian overtones is delicious. It skips lightly over the consonants and brushes the vowels with a lilt. She doesn't leave Herbert Lom in the hall. She leaves him in the "hole."
I admire Maximillion Schell. The guy is a marvelous actor, whether in sinister or comic roles, but this is not his movie. Imagine, no matter how much effort it takes, that Arnold Schwarzenegger had all the talent of Lawrence Olivier and Marlon Brando. What good would that talent do Arnold, stuck in movies like "Predator"? Sometimes the role and the associated dialog can defeat even the best of actors. Samantha Eggar delivers the goods.
Actually, the movie turns into a rather ingenious thriller towards the end, once that irrelevant mixed identity nonsense is gotten out of the way, but it's all written and directed so clumsily that the mystery is drained of life.
Ingrid Thulin is a Jewish doctor living in Paris at the outbreak of the war, and Maximillian Schell is her ambitious, chess-playing, Polish paramour. He's needy; she's generous. When war is declared he finally asks her to marry him despite her being Jewish. She's delighted but remarks that she'd be happier if he were marrying her because he loves her, not because he hates the Germans. Schell corrects her. To have married her before would have been conforming. Now he's being defiant. It's an interesting exchange. It takes place while another doctor, Herbert Lom, is standing nearby. Lom -- how you say? -- loves her from afar.
A couple of weakness might as well be gotten out of the way. The musical score is immemorably atonal. Not much effort has been put into period realism. Garments and hair styles look like garments and hair styles looked in 1965. The music is more irritating that evocative, and the director, J. Lee Thompson, uses far too many gigantic close ups, as if this film were designed for the television screen. The makeup underscores what for any perceptive viewer doesn't need underscoring.
On Thulin's return from the concentration camps, her eyes have been turned into two black holes and her hair dusted with flour. It's a pretty careless handling of a subject that deserves very careful attention. However, Lom, who still loves her, restores her to at least a semblance of her former beauty. She still can't bring herself to contact Schell, now living in Paris with Thulin's step daughter, Semantha Eggar, from a previous marriage. As you can see, it's a little complicated. Lom loves Thulin, but Thulin loves Schell, who is shacked up with Eggar and who may or may not have EVER loved Thulin, to whom he is still married, although he's convinced she's dead.
It get even MORE complicated. Thulin had a lot of money but since her remains were never identified -- how could they be? -- the money that should go to her step daughter, Eggar, is being withheld by the French government. So Schell and Eggar meet Thulin and are struck by the resemblance to Schell's wife, still thought to be deceased. They try to enlist her aid in squeezing the money out of the government by having Thulin pretend to be Schell's wife. I hope you're following all this.
So all Thulin has to do, Schell insists anxiously, is pose as his wife "for a short time -- a RELATIVELY short time", forge a few papers in her handwriting, little technicalities like that. Thulin's response is polite enough. That's fine for him. He gets thirty million franks but what does she get? Thirty years in prison. But she's dealing with a determined con man who can make anything sound reasonable. "Oh, come ON, not thirty YEARS!" He scoffs, as if it might only be TWENTY years. She's curious, revolted, and shocked. Both Schell and Eggar soon reveal themselves to be scurrilous weasels, just out for the money.
Thulin, for some reason, finally reveals her true identity and Schell is the consummate manipulator. He gawks and then, angry, almost in tears, he asks, "How could you DO this to me. All those years I've WAITED." It would be funny if Schell played it that way, but he does it straight.
Schell prefers Eggar AND the money, and Thulin now is merely in the way. Two greedy bastards and one innocent victim, a set up for a murder. But I'll get off the plot at this point.
Among the more interesting scenes is the one in which Schell welcomes Thulin (her real identity now restored) to their former residence. A toast! And with slivovitz, sometimes called "plum brandy" for reasons I've never been able to discern because, although it's made from the whole plum, it doesn't taste at all plummy, unless kerosene is plummy. Slivovitz has to be experienced to be believed. I once found myself stranded in a small Macedonian city and contacted the local authorities, who had never met an American. They happily opened the discussion with slivovitz. I must have achieved my goal, however drunk I became, because I notice I'm no longer in Skopje.
Ingrid Thulin is a pretty woman but he features suggest intelligence rather than the beauty of a fashion model. Her irises are a sharp black and her nose is as broad at the top as it is at the bottom. Her voice with its diaphanous Scandinavian overtones is delicious. It skips lightly over the consonants and brushes the vowels with a lilt. She doesn't leave Herbert Lom in the hall. She leaves him in the "hole."
I admire Maximillion Schell. The guy is a marvelous actor, whether in sinister or comic roles, but this is not his movie. Imagine, no matter how much effort it takes, that Arnold Schwarzenegger had all the talent of Lawrence Olivier and Marlon Brando. What good would that talent do Arnold, stuck in movies like "Predator"? Sometimes the role and the associated dialog can defeat even the best of actors. Samantha Eggar delivers the goods.
Actually, the movie turns into a rather ingenious thriller towards the end, once that irrelevant mixed identity nonsense is gotten out of the way, but it's all written and directed so clumsily that the mystery is drained of life.
- rmax304823
- Jun 22, 2016
- Permalink
An unknown classic.
One of those excellent films that has never been released on video or DVD. The first time I watched this there were only 2 other channels and both were showing programs I hated at that particular moment, so I ended up watching this film by default. What luck! I was treated to a beautiful, haunting film that featured great performances by Herbert Lom, Samantha Eggar, Maxmillian Schell and Ingrid Thulin. Thulin's performance in particular is flawless. She is utterly convincing as a death camp survivor trying to return to the world. If cable ever gets tired of endlessly re-running "Jaws", "The Breakfast Club" and "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" (Excellent films but shown 5 nights a week) and happens to air this true gem, be SURE you see/record it. The second time I caught it was on PBS--20 years after my initial viewing.
A grim melodrama with some outstanding acting
- JasparLamarCrabb
- Oct 3, 2013
- Permalink
Le retour des cendres.
- ulicknormanowen
- Dec 27, 2020
- Permalink
Worth it for the stunning opening sequence, and the incredible range of Samantha Eggar
The opening sequence, on a train, is mesmerizing--a four-and-a-half minute masterpiece that weaves a spell right from the start, lacerating you with a terrible, unexpected shock that leads into John Dankworth's strange, haunting theme, a vaguely sinister, slow rumba theme played at what Ray Charles used to call "the death tempo" and with the principal melody initially rendered on the harpsichord. (Though the genre and rhythm are quite different, the part played by the musical theme in this film is vaguely reminiscent of the zither theme in Orson Welles's "Third Man.") The film never quite delivers on the promise of its stunning beginning, and the way the heroine keeps coming back for more punishment (a little love, a lot of betrayal) from Maximilian Schell's character, suave but an evident stinker, strains credulity. But Samantha Eggar's many-shaded performance, ranging from supremely confident and skilled physician to brutalized concentration-camp survivor--and quite a bit in between--is riveting.
- pablojdavis
- Oct 5, 2019
- Permalink
Excellent thriller
This film has haunted me right from the start of its release in 1965, thanks to the top players, the tense plot, the effective direction by J. Lee Thompson and the music from John Dankworth. But most importantly (the play of) Samantha Eggar and the melodramatic role she plays in the film are the main reason of my lasting interest in this film. The famous bathroom scenes with her are unforgettable.
Let's replace interesting with over the top acting.
This is quite an over acted yawner from the 1960's. Not bad acting, just too much of it. I actually fell asleep and missed what happened to the step daughter. Oops... oh well. Good night.
- shiannedog
- Oct 18, 2021
- Permalink
Impossible to find, Impossible to forget.
Classy mid 60s thriller with plenty of meat in the burger and almost no cheese.
"Return" goes to all the familiar places but never lingers long on cliches.
I remember the theater cards in the lobby saying "Nobody enters the theater after Fabienne enters her bath".
It's twisty and pushes the plausibility envelope some, but the ride is good enough to cover the bumps.
This is one of the last films to use lobby hype, and it didn't need any hype. Ingrid Thulin shines in a truly convincing way, what a talent. Samantha Eggar simmers with heat and hate. Schell and Lom both set their person bars a little higher in this one..
Bottom Line: Just Find It And Watch It.
This is one of the last films to use lobby hype, and it didn't need any hype. Ingrid Thulin shines in a truly convincing way, what a talent. Samantha Eggar simmers with heat and hate. Schell and Lom both set their person bars a little higher in this one..
Bottom Line: Just Find It And Watch It.
- hammerogod-496-137451
- Nov 20, 2018
- Permalink
A great film.
Why is it that films that you really love are never shown on the television? I remember this film was considered pretty risque for 1665. I think the advertising went something like, NO ONE WILL BE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE THEATER ONCE FABBIE ENTER HER BATH... Wish I could see this one again!
Grim homecoming
I'm not quite the fan of this thriller that several other IMDb contributors are. I agree that it has some first-rate acting by Ingrid Thulin as a concentration camp survivor still smitten with her wastrel husband after four years of hell, Samantha Egger as her homicidal stepdaughter and Maxmilian Schell as the penniless scoundrel both women crave. And there's no question that the sensual bathtub murder, complete with a touch of foot fetishism, was well ahead of its time. But from the symbolic opening (a child falling off a speeding railway train while Thulin looks stoically on) through the climactic get-rich-quick scheme, the film is unrelentingly grim. J. Lee Thompson's direction, which assumes that slow-moving and suspenseful are synonyms doesn't help much. And in the end, the characters (aside from Herbert Lom's likable doctor) are not only unsympathetic but don't make much sense.
Let's see this one again!
I just want to briefly agree with the previous comments here. I haven't seen this movie in over thirty years, since high school, but it stands out vividly in my memory. Intriguing story beautifully acted by three outstanding stars. Why do films fall by the wayside? I hope this isn't one of the lost films that we keep hearing about. I guess our only hope of seeing this now is if TCM broadcasts it....or if it becomes a Criterion DVD release. Criterion has been wonderful in giving us beautiful prints of rare or hard to find classics. If anyone hears of Return from the Ashes returning from the ashes (LOL) please post the info here.
- edward-miller-1
- Jul 30, 2003
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A well made film, worth seeing!
J. Lee Thompson, an exceptional director, very gifted, prolific. He worked a lot with Charles Bronson. And with many other actors, achieving success after success. This "Return from the Ashes" is a drama, an introspection into the depths of the human soul. And it's also a thriller. All 4 actors are formidable: Ingrid Thulin, a special beauty, Samantha Eggar, an absolute beauty, Maximilian Schell and Herbert Lom.
- RodrigAndrisan
- Apr 27, 2020
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