A Time To Love And A Time To Die (1958)

In 1944, as WWII winds down and Germany's defeat is inevitable, a German soldier (John Gavin) returns from the Russian front on a two weeks leave. But after finding his family home bombed out and his family missing, he meets a girl (Liselotte Pulver, ONE TWO THREE) and they try to forget the war for at least a little while and fall in love. Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque (who also plays the professor in the film), this grim and poignant tale of two people finding love as their world crashes down around them. A TIME TO LOVE is an anomaly in Douglas Sirk's Universal career. Working in Germany for the first time since emigrating to the U.S., unlike the lush melodramas of WRITTEN ON THE WIND and IMITATION OF LIFE,  this film is a strong reminder that not all Germans were stark raving Nazis but everyday people caught up in a maelstrom beyond their control. I'm surprised that Sirk wasn't pressured to give the film a happy ending as its ending as it stands is incredibly painful to watch. Normally, John Gavin is the most wooden of all actors (though he worked with Kubrick, Hitchcock in addition to Sirk) but this is his best performance. He's not great by any means but entirely believable as the disillusioned soldier who just wants the war to be over. The strong underscore is by Miklos Rozsa and the excellent cinematography by Sirk regular, Russell Metty. With Keenan Wynn, Klaus Kinski, Jim Hutton, Don DeFore, Jock Mahoney and Thayer David.