Jeder zahlt für seine Schuld

"The Bramble Bush" is a frustrating movie. On one hand, it's an exceptional picture because it deals with euthanasia...an important topic that is almost completely ignored in movies. It brings up some great points....many of which get totally overwhelmed by the soapiness of pretty much everything else that takes place in the movie.

Dr. Guy Montford (Richard Burton) has returned to his old home town...a place he never wanted to see again. However, his best friend is dying and asking for him...and he cannot say no. Once in town, all sorts of soapy things occur...extramarital sex, rape, a pregnant wife...though the husband is not the father, etc.. There's so much that the film is much like "Peyton Place" on steroids...with more soap and crazy plot elements.

Overall, a film with some wonderful things to say about the right to die...but it manages to address them in the worst possible ways. A grumbly performance by Burton didn't help nor did a few extremely florid ones by others in the film. A real mixed bag...such that I can understand folks who gave the film low as well as high scores!

This is a very interesting case charting the tricky runway through thorny bushes and shallow seas of the problems of euthanasia, and no one knows how it will end. It could end up a regular tragedy, and there could also be a happy ending. There is neither, because this is strictly a medical case, and Richard Burton plays a very regular and conventional doctor who tries to keep strictly to his own business, and even his senior advises him to avoid grounding on sentimental and relational shores in the difficult navigation. His friend Larry is mortally ill and expressly calls for his old childhood friend (Burton) to take charge of his case, while his father reacts strongly and even violently against it. Larry's wife is Barbara Bush, who had a happy marriage in the beginning until he became ill, and she never got the child she so strongly wanted. Larry wants Richard Burton to take care of her after he is gone, and they actually love each other. So what is the problem? Larry pleads to Richard to take his life, and Richard can't stand seeing his friend suffer. It all ends up in a trial with some surprising turns, and the end is very unexpected. Burton acts his part with great restraint, a very unusual part in his career, but he is still young here. The others second him well, but best of all is the terrific music by. Leonard Rosenman, which adds an extra dimension to the story, raising it to a very different and higher level than Peyton Palace - only the settings are almost identical. There are many other threads as well to this small town scandal story, but the main issue is the very debatable complex of mercy killing. How much can a dying patient endure of his pains, and how much can his kin and doctors endure seeing him suffer? Lots have happened since 1960, and today the problems about this are practically solved, but the issue remains eternally bothersome.

The right to die in dignity ,which concerns us all , is still illegal in many a country.....

"The bramble bush" is an important film,weren't it only for its burning topic .

In 1981,in "whose life is it anyway? " ,Richard Dreyfuss ,paralysed after a car crash ,would ask for the right to die :as he was in a hospital ,it was not easy .

In Europa, recently ,some movies about assisted suicide were made in France ("quelques heures de Printemps" )and in Germany (und Morgen Mittag ,bin ich tot" ) but as it is illegal in both countries, death takes place in Switzerland .

It was all the more daring, risqué ,in the early sixties ; too bad it was given too melodramatic a treatment: nurse Angie Dickinson's affair with the go-getter lawyer with big ambitions in politics does not bring anything to the main plot ;and that the human doctor should be defended by such a cynical lawyer is not convincing.

But Burton ,as a tormented soul, wins the audience over ;when he depicts his childhood trauma , his talent does not need , like in too many works, the facile flashback :his words are enough ,such was the actor ; more than Barbara Rush's child , it's his merciful killing which infuriated and scandalized some people; if I were terminally-ill and suffering like Tom Drake,( "do it,but don't tell me when you're going to " ), I would be grateful to find a compassionate hand .

When you have the classical training that Richard Burton had you can make some of the worst tripe sound as profound as the classics. But even he had trouble with The Bramble Bush which is a third class ripoff of Peyton Place.

Burton is cast as a doctor in The Bramble Bush gone back to his Peyton Place like New England town on a consultation. A good friend from childhood, Tom Drake, is dying of incurable Hodgkin's Disease and he'd like for Burton to put an end to him in a humane manner. So would Drake's wife Barbara Rush so she can move on. Burton helps with her problem as well.

And he's also helping nurse Angie Dickinson with her situation as well. Angie's involved with bottom feeding lawyer Jack Carson and later on bottom of the ocean feeding city editor Henry Jones learns about the two of them. Angie would much prefer Burton and Burton obliges as best he can.

James Dunn's character is totally unexplained. Burton has a visceral hatred for him because he found him in bed with his mother back in the day as a kid. But why Dunn is trying to push himself in Burton's company is totally up in the air. Dunn does a good job as an alcoholic, sad to say in real life as well.

What might have been an interesting film on euthanasia instead becomes a trashy soap opera in The Bramble Bush. A whole cast of some really good players is wasted here.

No, not Elizabeth Taylor but a veteran actress just as beautiful and talented, maybe more so, a tall, trim brunette with deep-set brown eyes, lovely skin, and a great smile. She's the best thing in this post "Peyton Place" (1957) soap opera, very expressive as a dying man's wife who falls in love with his doctor (Burton). The picture features Angie Dickinson as a nurse who passively adores Burton, but she's already involved with a corrupt lawyer (Jack Carson). A murder results in a courtroom trial at the end. The drama tends to jump around a lot, but is bolstered by exceptional jazz and traditional musical score by Leonard Rosenman, and attractive imitation New England locations, in color.