2024-02-10 20:18:46
The Oscar for the film “The Search” is today in the “Simply Zurich” exhibition in the State Museum. Image: Mara Truog, 2023
The Oscar: symbol of triumph, happiness and recognition? Not always. In the case of “The Search” from the Zurich company Praesens-Film, the award was more about frustration and pain. She even ruined half of one of her recipients’ lives.
Michèle Wannaz / Swiss National Museum
Hollywood, Oscars 1949: In the hall Ava Gardner, Robert Montgomery, Ingrid Bergman, Deborah Kerr and dozens of others who are still considered the epitome of the classic Hollywood star today. Applause. Champagne. Orchestras, tuxedos and sequin dresses. And the Oscar goes to … Zurich!
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What joy, actually. Theoretically. Well: maybe a bit practical too. But really only limited. Although this Oscar was a symbol of recognition to the outside world, it was emotionally bitterly charged for the two winners Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler, the screenwriters of «The Search»a co-production of the Zurich company Present-Film with Hollywoods MGM.
The triumph not only had a bad aftertaste for her, but for everyone involved – including David’s father, producer Lazar Wechsler. The Swiss film owes its greatest cinema successes to date to this: For «Landammann Stauffacher» or “Gilberte de Courgenay” During the Second World War, millions lined up for his «Fusilier Wipf» even almost a third of the Swiss population. The drama “Marie Louise” he brought Present-Film also won her first (screenplay) Oscar. And the refugee epic “The last chance” ultimately paved her way to Hollywood.
There is no question: Wechsler had a great feel for the spirit of the times, for topics and stories that moved the masses. He was able to inspire his team and drive them to peak performance. Nevertheless, he was anything but popular and was considered difficult, moody and authoritarian when it came to interpersonal relationships. And while filming «The Search» its internal unpopularity temporarily reached its peak. For at least partly the same reason that marred the joy of the Oscar, when virtually everyone blamed each other: the director blamed the producer, the producer the leading actor, the leading actor the screenwriters – and somehow everyone blamed everyone else. Or at least almost.
But one after anonther. Shortly after the end of the war MGM, the largest film production company in the world at the time, offered Wechsler a co-production. He listens to his employees. And realizes that several people would like a humanistically committed post-war film. Especially star director Leopold Lindtberga Jewish refugee from Austria, repeatedly hears dramatic descriptions from those close to him Holocaust have escaped and wants to do everything within his means to alleviate the suffering. This also includes drawing public attention even more towards the most helpless victims of the war: the children.
In the spring of 1946, Lindtberg, based on a true incident, developed the story of a grandmother who crossed devastated Europe in search of her grandchildren. The parents from Claus von Stauffenberg’s circle were shot after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler, the children were kidnapped, given a new identity and placed in widely scattered locations.
Leopold Lindtberg (sitting) during the filming of “Füsilier Wipf”, around 1938.Image: Swiss Cinematheque
Wechsler secretly includes the material in his list of stories MGM wants to present, travels to California – and Hollywood bites. Behind Lindtberg’s back, however, he then entrusts the story to a Hollywood author, Peter Quarter, who also comes from Austria. The requirements: to turn the grandmother into a mother and to delete all references to the attack. And although Lindtberg is among the largest present-Successes – something like that «Fusilier Wipf», “Marie Louise” or “The last chance” – who also directed, Wechsler hired Fred Zinnemann (later known for his worldwide success) as director «High Noon»).
After the theatrical release of «The Search» Zinnemann will write to Lindtberg about the uneasiness he feels over and over again in the face of the film’s success, since the idea actually came from him and “you actually should have made the film!” Nevertheless, he gladly accepts when Wechsler makes him the offer. The story of an American soldier in the occupied zone who takes care of a disturbed orphan boy touches him. And he also likes the fact that the whole thing will be filmed in a semi-documentary style – in the real rubble of the war and partly with lay people, especially children, who experienced the Nazi crimes firsthand, sometimes even in a concentration camp.
Director Fred Zinnemann, taken in the 1940s.Image: Wikimedia Commons
When casting for the lead role – albeit one cast by a professional – Zinnemann was downright enchanted by a young actor: Montgomery Clift. He would later be considered, along with Marlon Brando, as the best actor of his generation, but at this point he was still completely unknown.
Clift signed his contract with Zurich based on Quarter’s script. But for Wechsler, this is still too concretely political, which endangers commercial success. He handed it over to Richard Schweizer, and his son David then edited it again. Exact location and time information largely disappears. The orphan boy’s Jewish parents become Czech intellectuals Wehrmacht and SS an anonymous “secret police”. The children are no longer Nazi victims, but rather undefined “orphans of war”.
Quarter, whose family themselves were victims of National Socialism, is so outraged that he withdrew his name. And Clift can hardly calm down either. When he reads the final version of the script – much to his chagrin, already contractually obliged – he describes it as a terrible saccharin concentrate and writes in horror: “Like ‘The Wilderness Calls’, only sweeter!”
Montgomery Clift was one of the best and most famous film actors of the 1950s.Image: Library of Congress
When the actor arrives in Zurich, where the interior scenes are being shot, he is determined to correct the pathetic script. Also because, as he notes with irritation, its authors have no idea whatsoever about the American army and mentality. Lazar Wechsler initially has no idea what kind of ambitious young man he has brought onto the set.
But Clift gives it his all: At night he rewrites his dialogue, invents entire scenes and constantly improvises on the set – much to Zinneman’s secret relief: The GI Steve suddenly becomes a flesh-and-blood figure, his relationship with the orphan boy complex, riddled with irritation and feelings of guilt.
Wechsler is almost shocked when he notices how little his main actor sticks to the script and how difficult it is to understand him because he constantly chews gum while playing – authentically, “like a real soldier”. He bombards him with registered letters (up to three a day) that are brought to Clift’s set, whereupon Clift confides to a friend: “This changer is incredible. It forces everyone to waste time writing letters or discussing things with their lawyers.” The conflict is so stressful for the team that at times – the weather making it unsuitable for filming takes its toll – they even consider canceling everything.
Oscar and criticism for the script
Which fortunately doesn’t happen. Because it still applies today «The Search» as a milestone of authentic post-war cinema and remained the Swiss film with the most international awards for decades. However, criticism of the script persisted to this day – despite the Oscar win. It is full of sentimentality and coincidences that are far from believable, and none of the children appear to have suffered irreversible trauma. The film historian Hervé Dumont, for example, praised the work of the director and cameraman: “In the looks of these orphans – some were actually rescued from Auschwitz – there are traces of trauma that no script can erase.”
So it’s hard to assume that Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler were just feeling good when they accepted this Oscar. Of all people, some of the creative core accused them of making the film so much better without their input. But while the internal quarrel probably only dampened their joy, the award ceremony actually meant misfortune for Ivan Jandl, who played the orphan boy and also received the honorary Oscar for best child actor at the same ceremony.
Yes, more than that: she actually just ruined his life. At least the professional one. The fear of politically incorrect connotations was also crucial here – albeit under completely different circumstances than when Lazar Wechsler reworked the script.
The film and the Oscar did not bring Ivan Jandl (left) any luck. Scene from “The Search” with Montgomery Clift.Image: Keystone
Jandl, just twelve years old in 1949, came from Czechoslovakia. And the communist regime in his home country forbade him to take part in the award ceremony. The Oscar had to be sent home to him. After that, he was only allowed to appear as a small actor in three films. And when he wanted to study acting in Prague after completing compulsory school, the theater faculty turned him away on the grounds that he should not have accepted an American award.
From then on, he kept himself afloat with odd jobs – culminating in a job as a radio presenter, which, however, was terminated after a short time without giving any reason. Ivan Jandl died in 1987 at the age of 50, without ever having received any real recognition in his homeland.
Close up. A Swiss film story
12.01.2024 – 21.04.2024
Zurich State Museum
Praesens-Film AG will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2024. The oldest still existing film company in Switzerland has an eventful past that extends to Hollywood. The exhibition shines the spotlight on the people who wrote Swiss film history in front of and behind the camera and shows how much the cinema screen was a mirror of time, politics and society.
Simply Zurich
Zurich State Museum
The city and canton of Zurich have a long and eventful history. This is shown in a permanent exhibition in the State Museum. From the model of a pile-dwelling hut to the Bircherraffel to the flag of a youth movement, the show illuminates Zurich’s diverse past and enriches the numerous historical objects with filmic installations and the latest technology. This enables visitors to have a multimedia experience.
Other posts adapted from the National Museum blog:
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