The Search

As the first Hollywood movie to be shot in post-WWII Germany, the authenticity of Zinnemann's film cannot be faulted. Recounting the wartime experiences of a ten-year-old Czech boy (Jandl), separated from his mother and cared for by an American soldier (Clift), it seems snatched from the pages of a newspaper. Although there's a slight suspicion that (as in Rossellini's work from this period) the plight of children is being used as a sort of emotional shorthand, the integrity and moving effect of this piece is never really in doubt.