A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Will o' the Wisp) (1958)

80% of critics liked it
(5 reviews)
78% of users liked it
(343 ratings)

Douglas Sirk directed this doomed World War II love story, seen from the German side of the war, as filtered through a distinctly late-'50s Hollywood banality. The film is based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the author of the classic World War I anti-war novel All Quiet On the Western Front… More Douglas Sirk directed this doomed World War II love story, seen from the German side of the war, as filtered through a distinctly late-'50s Hollywood banality. The film is based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the author of the classic World War I anti-war novel All Quiet On the Western Front -- and who makes a cameo appearance in the film as an elderly schoolteacher. The film stars John Gavin as Ernst Graber, a young Nazi soldier home on leave during the height of World War II. While on leave, he falls in love and marries Elizabeth Kruze (Lilo Pulver). With bombs falling all around the young couple, they set up house with a kindly old woman. Then Elizabeth becomes pregnant. But before Ernst can grasp the reality of his becoming a father, he is sent back to the war -- to fight the brutal battle along the Russian front. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 13 min.
Directed By: Douglas Sirk
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Sep 15, 1958 Wide

Critic Reviews

Dan Callahan, Slant Magazine
Sirk is a past master of handling the most dubious writing and acting and still somehow making it conform to his overall vision.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Douglas Sirk's haunting masterpiece wartime romance story is set in 1944.

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