“The Search” is the post-WWII, heart-breaking story about the horrendous plight of very special Displaced Persons – children – and the efforts of UNRRA to help them. In particular it is about one speechless amnesiac, a nine-year old Czech survivor of Auschwitz named Karel (Ivan Jandl), the American GI (Montgomery Cliff) who tries to help him, the compassionate UNRRA worker, Mrs. Murray (Aline MacMahon), and the boy’s ever searching mother, Mrs. Malik (Jarmila Novotna). The film's exteriors were shot in US-occupied West Berlin.

Ivan Jandl won the Oscar's Juvenile Award for his terrifyingly convincing performance. The movie also won the Oscar for Best Writing and Best Motion Picture Story. In addition, Montgomery Cliff was nominated for Best Actor and Fred Zinnemann was nominated for Best Director. “The Search” also won Golden Globe Awards for both Best Film Promoting International Understanding and for Best Screenplay. Little Ivan received a Special Golden Globe Award. The British Academy of Arts gave this movie the UN Award.

I could not help but cry throughout most of this is a heart breaking, yet uplifting story that brings to full realization the experiences of the most pitiful victims to survive the concentration camps. I never believed such a movie was possible. Up until the very end you will pray for the best, but only have faith in the worst. The closing scene is a triumph of movie making. It will renew your faith.

By Mark Eugene Tiedemann (Forgottenfront) on Unrecorded Date:

Talk about a great movie! I learned from the Turner Classic Movies newsletter that this was Montgomery Clift’s first film role. It made him a star overnight. The then unknown Clift was so convincing as a soldier caring for a young concentration-camp survivor in postwar Berlin that director Fred Zinnemann was asked; “Who’s that soldier you got to act?”