Town Without Pity
Directed by Gottfried Reinhardt
Written by George Herdalek and Silvia Reinhardt; adapted by Jan Lustig from a novel by Manfred Gregor
1961/USA/West Germany/Switzerland
The Mirisch Corporation/Osweg/Gloria-Film GmbH
First viewing/Amazon Prime
Col. Jerome Pakenham: This is no cross-examination! It’s a circus!
The story had real potential but is very oddly told.
The setting is a small West German town near a U.S. military base. The year is 1960. the story is narrated by a female tabloid journalist whom we do not actually meet for several minutes.
A group of four GIs goes into a local bar seeking to hook up with some prostitutes they know. The ladies are not there. They leave, disgusted. We segue to a scene in which teenager Karin Steinhof (Christine Kaufmann) is making out with her boyfriend by a river. His mother objects to their romance and she tries and fails to seduce him. She runs off and starts changing from her bikini into her street clothes. The GIs spot her while she is naked and rape her.
The local community is outraged and the base command is determined to make an example of these soldiers with maximum publicity. They agree to seek the death penalty, which is available for rape under military law but not under German law. Maj. Steve Garrett (Kirk Douglas) is selected to defend the soldiers. This he does in the most vigorous way possible. The ordeal might be too much for the fragile Karin who, like everyone, does not have a spotless past. To add to her troubles, the community is not only small but very small-minded. With E.G. Marshall as the prosecutor and Frank Sutton, Richard Jaeckel, and Robert Blake as defendents.
This was a joint U.S.-Swiss production and the device of the voice-over narrator was used to stitch the languages together for English-speaking audiences. It has a strange distancing effect. To add to that the title song is played incessantly, whether it has any relevance to the scene or not. You are almost guaranteed an ear worm by the end of the film. A lot of good acting and some sharp courtroom tactics were lost on me during the barrage.
Dmitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington were nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song for the title tune.
Trailer
Gene Pitney in a contemporary TV performance.
