The Divided Heart

While it may be a multi-award winning film and proved to be a successful box office number upon it’s theatrical release back in 1954, Ealing Studio’s THE DIVIDED HEART suffers from an overtly schmaltzy plotline, made worse by the fact that the topic of a displaced little war orphan, whose biological mother turns out to be alive and now wants him back, demands a more serious and a more political tone.

Based on a true story, the film is divided in two parallel running plotlines taking place in 1952 (seven years after the end of WW2): one is set in a village in Bavaria, Germany, the other one set in Yugoslavia. Starting in Bavaria, we are introduced to Inga (Cornell Borchers) and Franz Hartl (Armin Dahlen), a German couple whose adopted 10-year old son Toni (Michel Rey de Carvalho) is a war orphan from Slovenia (whose real name is Ivan) and who was one of 300 babies and young children whose Slovenian parents were declared ‘Bandits’ by the invading Nazis. While most adults were either sent to concentration camps or shot outright if suspected as partisan members, some of their children (deemed as ‘racially pure’ and healthy according to warped Nazi ideology) were sent to Germany under the Nazi ‘Lebensborn’ program.

Toni/Ivan, who was three years old when he was taken away by the Nazis, has no idea that Inga and Franz aren’t his real parents. The child seems to have a happy family life what with his doting parents, childhood friends to play with and stunning surroundings comprised of snow-covered mountains which enables Toni, an enthusiastic skier, to indulge his favourite hobby. It might be interesting to note that child actor Michel Rey de Carvalho went on to become a professional skier and luge, representing Great Britain at the 1968 Winter Olympics in skiing, and luge at the 1972 and 1976 Winter Olympics. All seems well then in the Hartl household until one day, two officials from the International Refugee Organization knock on the door and inform the parents that the boy’s biological mother, presumed killed during the war, is in fact still alive and now demands her son back. Despite Inga’s protests the two officials inform her that the boy’s real mother, Sonja (sour-faced Yvonne Mitchell), is perfectly within her rights to take the boy back. Should she wish to go ahead and open a court appeal, the Hartls will be informed via letter.

This is the catalyst for an avalanche of personal angst and tragedy as Inga in particular can’t face the prospect of losing ‘her’ child and thus hopes the dreaded letter will never arrive. Alas, it does, and a short while later both Inga and Franz are confronted with Sonja (who clearly hates them) for the first time in court, with the Chief Justice (Alexander Knox), the First Justice (Liam Redmond) and the Second Justice (Eddie Byrne) holding sway over the tribunal proceedings.
Sonja’s then tells her story via flashback and we see her and then husband Josip (Theodore Bikel) as a happy family with their three-year old son Ivan… that is, until the dastardly Nazis arrive and create havoc left, right and centre. At first hiding in the forest among a group of partisans, it is decided that Sonja and little Ivan should return to their town if they want to survive the harsh winter. While Josip is later executed by the Nazis as a partisan rebel, Sonja is deported to Auschwitz concentration camp but miraculously survives… now desperate to take her son back to Yugoslavia.

Next we see Inga and Franz’ story via flashback and how they adopted three-year old ‘Toni’ from an orphanage in Germany. Although the boy took kindly to Inga from the start he initially seemed terrified of Franz, even pulling a blanket over his face when Franz presented him with a teddy bear. Eventually, it dawned on Inga that Toni is terrified of Franz because his uniform (he’s still a soldier for Hitler’s army) reminds the boy of the SS-soldiers who took him away from his mother back in Yugoslavia. Only gradually Franz managed to gain the boy’s trust. Inga also reveals to the judges that she and Franz are German refugees themselves, having been booted out of Sudetenland after the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945.

These events should have provided a lot more scope for the filmmakers to add additional flashback scenes (as opposed to never-ending scenes of the whingeing and anxious Inga) depicting the horror when Ivan had been taken away by the Nazis (we don’t actually see it) or a brief glimpse of Sonja in the concentration camp – something that could have beeen cleverly staged even with a minimal budget. Instead we see endless and quite frankly rather embarrassing shots of the Hartl family smiling against obviously fake Alpine backgrounds etc.

In the end the judges decide that Toni/Ivan, now ten years old, is no ones possession and must decide for himself with whom he wants to live. It is arranged for Sonja to travel to the little Alpine village to get acquainted with her son (who has no memory of her), much to the chagrin of the Hartls. It’s a rocky encounter at first as Toni (and his schoolmates who are jealous of him for having two mothers) are anything but sympathetic towards Sonja but when the other kids attack her with a hail of snowballs the boy jumps to her defence. In the final scene we see him and Sonja on a train taking them to Yugoslavia and we are left in suspense as to the eventual outcome. Incidentally, we get a brief glimpse of director John Schlesinger as the ticket collector.

THE DIVIDED HEART has just been released newly restored on Blu-ray, DVD and DIGITAL with the following Extras: Michael Rey remembers ‘The Divided Heart’ / New interview with author Quentin Falk / Behind the Scenes still gallery.