Michelle has money, Stan does not. She loves him; he loves her money. A match made in heaven, don’t you think? A film that sounds like it would be horror (wife returns from the dead) turns out to be film noir—1965’s Return from the Ashes .
Maximilian Schell is cast as Stanislaus Pilgrin, a broke chess master with expensive tastes. Pilgrin meets Dr. Michele Wolf (Ingrid Thulin) over a chess board and is quickly smitten with her cash flow. Dr. Wolf is a radiologist and the widow of a man that left her more than comfortable. They live together in pre-World War II Paris; when the Nazis invade Poland, lily-livered Stan proposes to Michelle—more to spite the Nazis than out of love, for he is Polish and Michelle is Jewish. As they leave their wedding ceremony, Nazis drag Michelle off to Dachau.
Fast forward to the liberation of France, Michelle eventually finds her way back to Paris after being hospitalized for some time and rents a flat under an assumed name. She is still in love with Stan, but--knowing how shallow he is--wants to work a bit on her looks before meeting him; he believes she is dead. In the meantime, Stan has gotten himself involved in an affair with Michelle’s beautiful, greedy step-daughter, Fabi (Samantha Eggar) who has a plan to recoup the 300 million francs Michelle had before she “died.” The goofy scheme just might work...if Fabi and Stan had a brain between them.
Stan, coward that he is, figures his only choice is to kill both women, get the money, and retire from his hectic life of doing nothing. He embarks on double-crossing his lover (Fabi) and devises a plan to rid himself of his wife, Michelle. Fans of film noir know that there is always that one little thing that goes wrong—that little piece of evidence, an exchanged greeting, an unexpected guest. Perhaps Stan should have spent more time at the cinema with Fabi instead of in bed.
Slow at times, Return from the Ashes is a neat piece of noir that focuses on cunning, avarice, and duplicity. Maximilian Schell is smooth and appealing as Stan; we can see why women might fall for him, but we still think they should have more sense. Samantha Eggar is luminous as the bratty-but-clever Faby, and Ingrid Thulin succeeds at making the transition from beautiful woman to concentration camp refugee and back.
There is one marvelous scene early in Return from the Ashes where a very annoying little boy falls off a train (who cares?), included to illustrate Michelle’s lack of emotion when she first returns. It doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the deliberately paced film. It was designed to shock, and it succeeds, but—really—if that kid didn’t fall off the train, someone would have thrown him off.
Return from the Ashes is one of MGM’s Limited Edition titles, manufactured on demand (MOD) and available from on-line retailers. It was released March 29.
Maximilian Schell is cast as Stanislaus Pilgrin, a broke chess master with expensive tastes. Pilgrin meets Dr. Michele Wolf (Ingrid Thulin) over a chess board and is quickly smitten with her cash flow. Dr. Wolf is a radiologist and the widow of a man that left her more than comfortable. They live together in pre-World War II Paris; when the Nazis invade Poland, lily-livered Stan proposes to Michelle—more to spite the Nazis than out of love, for he is Polish and Michelle is Jewish. As they leave their wedding ceremony, Nazis drag Michelle off to Dachau.
Fast forward to the liberation of France, Michelle eventually finds her way back to Paris after being hospitalized for some time and rents a flat under an assumed name. She is still in love with Stan, but--knowing how shallow he is--wants to work a bit on her looks before meeting him; he believes she is dead. In the meantime, Stan has gotten himself involved in an affair with Michelle’s beautiful, greedy step-daughter, Fabi (Samantha Eggar) who has a plan to recoup the 300 million francs Michelle had before she “died.” The goofy scheme just might work...if Fabi and Stan had a brain between them.
Stan, coward that he is, figures his only choice is to kill both women, get the money, and retire from his hectic life of doing nothing. He embarks on double-crossing his lover (Fabi) and devises a plan to rid himself of his wife, Michelle. Fans of film noir know that there is always that one little thing that goes wrong—that little piece of evidence, an exchanged greeting, an unexpected guest. Perhaps Stan should have spent more time at the cinema with Fabi instead of in bed.Slow at times, Return from the Ashes is a neat piece of noir that focuses on cunning, avarice, and duplicity. Maximilian Schell is smooth and appealing as Stan; we can see why women might fall for him, but we still think they should have more sense. Samantha Eggar is luminous as the bratty-but-clever Faby, and Ingrid Thulin succeeds at making the transition from beautiful woman to concentration camp refugee and back.
There is one marvelous scene early in Return from the Ashes where a very annoying little boy falls off a train (who cares?), included to illustrate Michelle’s lack of emotion when she first returns. It doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the deliberately paced film. It was designed to shock, and it succeeds, but—really—if that kid didn’t fall off the train, someone would have thrown him off.Return from the Ashes is one of MGM’s Limited Edition titles, manufactured on demand (MOD) and available from on-line retailers. It was released March 29.
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