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Town Without Pity (1961)iMDB Rating: 7.3
Date Released : 1 March 1961
Genre : Drama
Stars : Kirk Douglas, Barbara Rütting, Christine Kaufmann, E.G. Marshall
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

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In 1960 Germany, Army lawyer Major Steve Garrett is assigned to defend four American soldiers charged with raping 16 year-old Karin Steinhof. She was swimming in a nearby river when the four of them came across her and they were soon arrested thereafter. Maj. Garrett is anything but impressed with his clients but his job is to give them the best defense possible. He tries to obtain a plea bargain but Karin's father flatly refuses and the prosecutor, Colonel Jerome Pakenham, is seeking the death penalty. In order for the death penalty to be applied, the defense attorney must have the opportunity to thoroughly examine the victim under oath. He sympathizes with Karin and does his best to convince Karin father to keep her from testifying. When he refuses, Garrett is left will little choice but to attack her on the stand.

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Review :

Gripping, powerful, shocking for its time.

When this film was released in 1961, I remember the ads saying this film was for "Adults Only". (The MPAA rating system didn't exist then.) A film about four soldiers stationed in Germany who gang rape a 16 year old girl and the trial that followed was pretty heavy stuff for audiences back then. I recently saw the film on Turner Classic Movies, and it still holds up very well. It is still startling and powerful, even without nudity and foul language, which should show Hollywood it can be done. You can be "adult" without being unnecessarily vulgar or obscene. As it stands, I would still give this film an "R" rating today.

And, of course, there is the memorable title song, sung by Gene Pitney, which accounted for the film's only (surprisingly) Oscar nomination. Even that lost out to the syrupy "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

My one complaint about Turner's presentation was with the film's aspect ratio. Instead of showing a widescreen version, they showed a full-frame version with the framing "squeezed" so that faces were somewhat elongated and cars appeared "stubby" and compacted. This became very annoying. Even a pan & scan version would be better than this.

Nonetheless, for sheer power, as well as excellent acting by Kirk Douglas, E.G. Marshall, Christine Kaufmann, and a very young Robert Blake, I highly recommend "Town Without Pity".