The left hand of God

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Movie
German title The left hand of God
Original title The Left Hand of God
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1955
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Edward Dmytryk
script Alfred Hayes
production Buddy Adler / Twentieth Century Fox
music Victor Young
camera Franz Planner
occupation

The Left Hand of God (Original title: The Left Hand of God ) is an American drama film by the director Edward Dmytryk from 1955 based on the novel God's left hand ( The Left Hand of God ) by William E. Barrett . The German premiere took place on November 14, 1955, the first broadcast on German television took place on December 25, 1971.

action

China during the Second World War : in 1944 the American fighter pilot Jim Carmody has to make an emergency landing and is then captured by General Mieh Yang. This forces him to work for him as a soldier and adjutant .

After three years of imprisonment, Carmody can't stand it any longer and flees. He uses the robes of a killed Catholic priest. When he passes a mission station he is mistaken for the long-awaited Father. The station is managed by Dr. David Sigman and his wife Beryl. The station takes care of villagers who are suffering from the civil war between nationalists and communists . In order not to give himself away, Carmody plays along, but soon falls in love with the American nurse Anne Scott. He also confesses who he is. Scott is troubled by Carmody's advances.

One day General Yang shows up and threatens to level the station and the village if Carmody doesn't go with him. Carmody offers him a game of dice: if he wins, he will stay free and the village and the station safe, if General Yang wins, he will have to serve him for another five years. Jim Carmody wins the dice game and the general withdraws with his troops without destroying the mission station. In addition, the general has a story spread in which he was moved to leave by a miraculous act of the Holy Spirit.

background

  • The year before, producer Adler received an Oscar for Damned Forever . In 1957 he was also given the Irving G. Thalberg Memory Award .
  • Other Oscar-winning contributors included art director Lyle R. Wheeler (he won three before this film and two more later); Set decorator Walter M. Scott, who came on the set with an Oscar and later won another five statues; Costume designer Travilla (an Oscar); his colleague Charles Le Maire (two Oscars before the film, another came later), who worked here as head of the costume department.
  • While composer Young later came to Oscar honors, the orchestra conductor Leo Shuken , who won the Oscar for composer in 1940, was not named in the credits.

Reviews

“ The left hand of God draws its tension less from the action than from the inner conflict of its protagonist. Edward Dmytryk […] directed an original adventure film with excellent acting performances by Humphrey Bogart, Lee J. Cobbs and Gene Tierneys "

- 3sat :

"[...] adventurous, despite touching moments a Hollywood sermon on the verge of kitsch. (Rating: 1½ out of 4 possible stars - moderate) "

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on TV" (1990) :

literature

  • William E. Barrett : God's Left Hand. Novel. (Original title: The Left Hand of God ). German by Heinz Geck . 6th edition, 29–32 Thousand. Schünemann, Bremen 1960, 321 pp.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 3sat.de
  2. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz: Lexicon "Films on TV". (Extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , pp. 511-512.