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Friday, February 6, 2009

VALAHOL EURÓPÁBAN / SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE (1947)

Géza von Radványi’s heartfelt, seriously schizophrenic film from Hungary about a ragtag band of homeless boys (and one disguised girl) roaming the countryside scavenging for survival during the anarchic endgame of WWII.  Though barely making a go of it, their fierce reputation has terrified the territory and caused the remnants of law & order to hunt them down as if they were rabid animals.  The film moves in fits & starts as pitiless scenes of misery alternate with cloying sentimental claptrap & youthful comradery; half LORD OF THE FLIES half MAGYAR BOYS TOWN.*  (The background score is pure M-G-M/Mickey Rooney.)  A smeary DVD transfer does no favors to the impressively harsh look of the film, but this one is, as the Hollywood wags would have it, ‘strictly from Hungary.’

DOUBLE-BILL: *Maybe closer to William Wellman’s WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD/’33 which even has that disguised girl routine.

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