Beware of Pity

Many great novels do not adapt easily to the cinema, and it was with a certain hesitancy that I watched this version of Stefan Zweig's ' Beware of Pity. ' It does not totally succeed, and the lead actor Albert Lieven did not seem quite right for the soldier who succumbs to pity towards a woman played by Lilli Palmer who has lost her ability to walk. I am not sure who in 1946 could have taken on such a complex and exacting role, but he does his best. Lilli Palmer by contrast is superb as the woman who tries to gain his love, but realises that she is asking too much and that pity towards her is intolerable. The direction is somewhat pedestrian but the supporting cast makes up for it, and Gladys Cooper ( a great actor who should be more remembered than she is ) is extraordinary as a blind woman who tries to convince the soldier there is a difference between compassion than pity. The film is set just before the First World War in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and it is the fatal shot at Sarajevo that precipitates the saddening climax. To reveal more would be unfair, and for those who have not read Stefan Zwieg this is a good introduction. I recommend finding this rare film.

Albert Lieven is efficient here as the Austrian officer "Marek" who meets the glamorous "Baroness Edith" (Lilli Palmer) at a lavish dance. Asking her for a waltz, he soon discovers that she has been paralysed. The two chat and remain in touch over the coming months where she falls well and truly in love. Thing is, he doesn't quite reciprocate and when she accidentally discovers this, she runs away, distressed and alone, and her thoughts turn to suicide. The title is quite apt here - it illustrates the dangers of, however innocently, leading someone on with gestures of affection and kindness when they don't have the necessary reality filters to appreciate the distinction between fondness and amour. It's set just before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, so has many of the opulent settings of the Hapsburg court as a backdrop - the costumes and settings all look grand. There is also an interesting sub-plot with dedicated doctor "Kondor" (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and his blind wife "Klara" (a lovely, nuanced effort from Gladys Cooper) with the latter proving a vital conduit for the young man to realise just what his relationship with "Edith" really means... It's rather wordy this, and there are maybe just too many characters that rather diffuse the narrative a little too much - but if you enjoy historical melodrama with a fine period score from Nicholas Brodsky then you ought to enjoy this rather superior drama with a conscience.

Not for everyone because it is sad but the acting is superb. The message is from a time where love had a different meaning. It makes you think. It makes you uncomfortable and the photography is perfection.

I hope you have the opportunity of viewing this wonderful and challenging film. Bravo.

This was Stefan Zweig's one and only novel, who was a great psychologist and in this novel approached the realms of Dostoievsky's keen insight into the complexities of the human mind and dealing with it with a very delicate touch. The film has succeeded in embracing the terrible predicament of the officer, who sees no way out when a suicidal cripple has given him her unconditional love which he can't answer. It's a universally worrying situation for everyone involved, including her entire family, her doctor and his wife and his own regimental fellow officers, and the real title of the novel is "The Heart's Unrest", driving the unreleased passion of the heart to the brinks of hysteria and desperation, like also in his short story "Verwirrung der Gefühle" ("The Confusion of Feelings"). Lilli Palmer dominates the film giving one of her best performances of extreme charm and sensitivity, Cedric Hardwicke is perfect as the troubled doctor who is also stuck in the dilemma of not being able to deliver the truth, he is in a similar situation himself stuck for life as married to a blind wife (Gladys Cooper, always excellent), playing a vital part in the drama, while Albert Lieven is just as helpless in his role as he should be. It is beautifully filmed, Cecil Beaton having created the exquisite costumes, the environment is like the beauteous dream of a fairy tale but real, and reality is all too palpable as the first world war breaks out - Archduke Franz Ferdinand has a small part in the film. On the whole, it's a film well worth seeing for its challenging task of realizing a very worrying and troublesome story of a predicament that could happen to anyone.

It's interesting to compare this Stefan Zweig film with the other one of almost the same year, Max Ophuls' "Letter from an Unknown Woman", on one of his short stories. In that film very much is altered, the writer in the story is a pianist in the film, and the events of the story are much less tragic and poignant than in the film. In "Beware of Pity" very little is altered, it sticks to the book with carefulness, and still Max Ophuls' film is so much more interesting and gripping. Curiously enough, just by making so great changes to the story, he makes Stefan Zweig more alive and convincing, than the almost pedantic "Beware of Pity" being more true to the letter.

I read this novel after listening to Wes Anderson refer to it as one of the inspirations for his movie The Grand Budapest Hotel. I was blown away by the story, and Zweig. I figured no one, not even today could hope to capture the emotional dissonance of such a great story by Zweig but then I found this 1946 film somehow and I think it did a very good job at portraying the characters and their management of the storyline. The screenplay was simple and alike movies of the day the emphasis was on the expression of the actors. Lilly was fabulous and justly pitiful. It's a very simple story that is tragic and the movie captured it well. I'm so glad I found it.