Voice in the Wind

Plot synopsis:
Jan Foley (Francis Lederer), an amnesiac Czech pianist is a victim of Nazi torture for playing a banned song. Living under a new identity on the island of French-governed Guadalupe, Jan tries to recall his past life while working for crooked refugee-smuggler Angelo (Alexander Granach). To the melancholy island of Guadalupe come a band of refugees, stripped of their friends and their country by the war. Among them dwells a brooding, sinister man known only as "El Hombre," whose memory was destroyed by the brutality of the Nazis. One evening, as El Hombre sits trance-like at the piano and plays a somber melody, his music drifts into the room inhabited by other refugees, Dr. Hoffman, his wife Anna, and their invalid charge, Marya Volny. El Hombre's playing reminds Anna of Jan Volny, a famous pianist from her homeland of Czechoslovakia, and she bitterly reflects upon the life that they lost. After finishing the piece, El Hombre reads a notice from the governor, warning of the refugees about "murder boats" that will promise them asylum in the U.S., but will leave them to perish at sea after fleecing them of their savings. The demented El Hombre takes the warning as a sign to destroy the fishing boat owned by his compassionate employer Angelo. El Hombre's act infuriates Angelo's cruel brothers, Luigi and Marco, who loathe the stranger and wish him dead. As Marya's condition worsens, Anna blames herself for forcing the girl to leave her homeland and recalls the conditions that drove them into exile: After invading Prague, the Nazis grant permission to Czech pianist Jan Volny to present a concert. They stipulate, however, that "The Moldau," a much-loved patriotic symphony written by Bedrich Smetana, be excluded from the concert. Carried away by the beauty of the music, Volny ends his concert with a four-minute paraphrase of the famed symphony. Realizing that his act will draw the wrath of the Nazis and that his wife, Marya, will also suffer at the hands of their oppressors, Volny arranges for the Hoffmans to smuggle her out of the country, but before he can escape himself, he is captured and subjected to unspeakable violence, which deranges him. En route to a concentration camp, Volny overpowers his guards and escapes. After making his way to Lisbon, he hides on a fishing boat owned by Angelo and his brothers, which embarks shortly thereafter and carries him to the island of Guadalupe. In the fog of his unhinged brain, Volny fails to remember his own name and identity, and is thus dubbed El Hombre. As Anna's thoughts return to the present, Marya, enchanted by the sound of El Hombre's piano, rises from her bed, inches her way down the stairs and then collapses in the street. El Hombre finds her there, and as he fingers the crucifix encircling her neck, his memory begins to return. When the Hoffmans come looking for Marya, El Hombre retreats into the shadows. Later, he begins to recall snatches of his life with Marya, but his reverie is cruelly interrupted by Luigi's harsh voice challenging him. Moments later, from the street, Angelo hears gunshots, and hurrying to their source, he finds Luigi, gun in hand, standing over El Hombre's body. As the brothers argue, Luigi stabs Angelo with an ice pick. Noticing that El Hombre has vanished, the wounded Angelo follows a trail of blood into the street and up the stairs to Marya's room, where the Hoffmans are notifying the police of Marya's death. At her bedside, El Hombre cradles Marya's lifeless body in his arms, begging her to return to life. His entreaties echo the words spoken to him by Marya at the time of their separation in Czechoslovakia, affirming her certainty that he will one day come for her.

Tags: murder

Review:
Beautifully written, directed and acted independent film..
Rare that an independent film could be made of such maturity in a time of studio run films.
Arthur Ripley helped create the character of Harry Langdon in the 20s.
A skilled writer, he had a keen eye and his direction of him own screenplay for Voice in the Wind is tight, powerful and direct.
I believe Francis Lederer gives one of his finest performances, with Sigrid Gurie as the wife he cannot remember.
Best of all, keep your eyes on two character actors: Alexander Granach and J.
Both give in-depth character studies that are the backbone of this unusual film.
Done on a shoestring budget during the powerful days of the major studios, the film is a character study in depth.
If you can pick up a copy of it, it's more than worth it.I wish I had more room to comment on this film, as I do know a few personal stories about how it came about.
I knew Arthur Ripley when he was near the end of his career.
Get a copy of this film..
a voice in the wind.
I saw this film at least six times.
I grew up a fan of Francis Lederer and I am also a musician.
This film was premiered by my uncle at the Hawaii Theater in Hollywood.
It was unique in more than one way: Not only was it an intensive dramatic story of a pianist who tries to recover from abuse by the Nazis, but elegantly portrays nationalism.
The Moldau by Smetana is the background music which holds the film together.
Keep in mind that I saw the film in the 1940s, and not since; perhaps no one has since.
Another uniqueness: my uncle managed to bring a pianist on stage; he began playing the Moldau and it bled into the film music.
The pianist, as I recall, was Vladimir Brenner, who sought to restore a career after the war.
I do not know if other theaters included an on-stage pianist.
Critics suggest the film was moody, even dull, but I found it then, as I remember it now, a film classic..
Arthur Ripleys finest work.
A film well worth watching..
While at the UCLA film division, I took a class in film directing from Arthur Ripley, the writer and director of VOICE IN THE WIND.
Produced independently at a time when few films were being made outside the studio system, Ripley poured his heart and soul into this film.
He showed a 35mm print in class and I watched it in awe.
It is a character driven film with excellent performances by Francis Lederer, Sigrid Gurie, Alexander Granich and J.
Carol Naish.
Carol Naish.
I only wish I was able to see the film again.
I have been searching for it, to no avail.
Prints are not to be found.
No DVDs are available.
I know some film collectors have copies, but getting a DVD out of any one of them is near impossible.
How can justice be given to this rare and beautiful film without seeing it.
Lederer's gradual restoring of memory is so well handled it is wonderful to watch his emotions change from grief to joy.
Hunt for a copy of this film.
If you find it, you will not be disappointed!.
First film I ever hated, but somehow still haunts me.
As a teenager I rarely saw a movie I didn't like, but this was the first one I actually hated.
I saw it in 1944 at a naval base in Newfoundland after months of isolation in the North Atlantic, so what few critical facilities I had were numbed and I was ready to enjoy any junk Hollywood threw my way.
I walked out of the theater actually angry!So how come it still sticks in my memory?
Nothing could be that memorably bad.
I suspect from reading other reviews that it had many haunting, persistent film-noir images unlike anything the major studios were grinding out then.If it ever shows up on Turner Classic Movies I'll certainly watch it with an eager, open mind..
Downbeat.
Jan Volny (Francis Lederer) is a concert pianist who has ended up on the island of Guadelupe.
He had a lover Marya (Sigrid Gurie) and they both fled the Nazi occupation of their homeland and have ended up in Guadelupe unaware of each other's presence there.
Jan has lost his memory and can't speak and lives as a vagrant.
He still plays the piano, in particular, a tune that was banned by the Nazis and is a symbol of Czech patriotism.
Marya is living a few doors away from him and is dying of pneumonia.
She hears him playing this particular tune and is drawn towards the sound.
However, she collapses and dies in the street - he finds her and slowly begins to remember who she is......
meanwhile, there are a couple of smuggler brothers Angelo (Alexander Granach) and Luigi (J Carrol Naish) who have fallen out over Jan as they blame him for setting fire to their boat......The quality of this film is poor and the pace is slow.
Its an atmospheric film that is told in flashback and its basically a depressing melodrama.
The music score is very good and the moments when Jan plays the piano are the best moments in the film.
Another good moment comes when Jan tells the Nazi interrogating officer what he thinks of him.
Unfortunately, this leads to his head injury and subsequent amnesia.
I'm not sure whether its a good film or not..
You can't let him get away with this provocation!.
***SPOILERS*** At first you think your watching the sequel of the movie "I walked with a Zombie" as the what looks like brain dead concert pianist Jan Volny, Francis Lederer, walking around the island of Guadalupe, with foghorns blowing in all directions, as if he was dropped off there from a UFO after being experimented on by the spacecrafts' alien crew members.
Known by the people in town as "The Crazy One" Volny just sits in his shack endlessly playing on the piano Smetana's touching melody "Moldau" for endless hours at at time.
Yes the guy is crazy but it was the music he played back home in Prague that got him to be that way.It was in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia that Volny makes the mistake in playing music forbidden by the Reich.
That had him arrested and about to be interned in a mental institution to be deprogrammed by Nazi doctors and psychiatrists.
On his way there Volny ended up killing the two SS men who ware taking him there thus making him a fugitive from the law, Nazi law, who was to be shot on sight for murder.
With him now somehow getting to the island of Gaudalupe his troubles were far from over.
It was his old lady Marya, Sigrid Gurie, who tracked him down there and is now herself suffering from double pneumonia because of the trip there that wrecked her health.The film tries to show its audience that the Nazi's among other things didn't appreciate good music like hard rock rock & roll and country & western as well as the classics that Volny was so found off.
It wouldn't have been a big deal for Volny to play the Nazie's music requests but his conscience wouldn't let him.
He ended up playing himself into madness and obscurity that cost him not only his sanity but his both wife's, Marya, life as well as his own.
And it wasn't the Nazis that did him in it was his fellow escapees from Nazi occupied Europe that did..
OFFBEAT AND DEPRESSING NOIR.
Since you'll never see this rare film,*SPOILERS*Here is a short synopsis:The film begins with a voice over about escapees from the war in Europe.
On the island of Guadalupe in 1944 refugees wait and hope to enter the US.
The Guadalupe government warns the refugees not to pay money to smugglers who will take their money and kill them at sea.
One group of these smugglers consist of the three brothers Angelo, Luigi, and Marco who regularly rip-off the refugees.
[The brothers seem like a twisted version of the Marx brothers - they are suppose to be Portuguese but they have bad Italian accents.
Angelo is Groucho without the wise cracks, Luigi is like an evil Chico, and Marco is like Harpo, without the Harp, as he only hums and whistles (he only speaks once in the film)].Anyway, this crazy guy called by the villagers "Hombre or The Insane One" lives with the brothers and his only talent is that he plays the piano in the local abandoned bar.
His playing bothers the brothers to no end.
Hombre stares into space and remembers....A flashback reveals that Hombre is actually Jan Volny, a Czech pianist engaged to Marya.
After a concert where he plays a forbidden piece the Nazis arrest him but not before he sends Marya away to Paris.
During the interrogation, a commandant hits Jan on the head with a candleholder and causes him to become bug-eyed, giving him amnesia.
On the train to the concentration camp, he is given a harmonica and starts to play the forbidden piece.
Immediately the two Nazis guarding him attack him.
Fighting them off, he knocks them out and escapes.
Next thing you know he is hiding in Lisbon and watches the three Portuguese?
brothers mentioned earlier beat a woman up (we never find out why).Back at the bar Hombre (Jan) begins to play the forbidden piece again on the piano.
Across the courtyard Marya (Somehow she is in Guadeloupe also) hears the music and thinks it might be her lost love Jan. She runs down into the courtyard and quickly collapses.
Jan hears her collapse and goes out into the courtyard and finds her.
He slowly begins to remember her and takes her back to the people she is staying with.
He staggers away, confused, back to the bar.
Luigi enters the bar enraged that Hombre is playing piano again, shoots him.
In comes Angelo who is angry that his brother killed?
Hombre.
They fight and look down to see that Hombre has disappeared.
Luigi then grabs a knife and kills Angelo.Jan goes back to Marya's apartment and cries over her body.
She has died of pneumonia.
In voice over, Marya vows that she will wait for Jan. End of film.
Very weird and really what was the point?.
Whether brilliant or not so brilliant, this movie is a MUST!.
Certainly the most off-beat of the wartime splurge of anti-Nazi pictures, this is an extraordinary and brilliant film, an experience so unforgettable, you will remember all this (either for or against) to your dying day: The two brothers, proprietors of a murder boat, so vividly portrayed by Alexander Granach and J.
Carroll Naish (who is a little inclined to over-accent the accent) and their enervating idea that you cannot kill a madman because he is really two people (with its shattering climax); the beautifully played piano solos; the haunting fog-shrouded photography by Eugene Schufftan; and the relentlessly probing direction of Arthur Ripley making magic of the necessities for small-budget filming.ANOTHER VIEW: "Voice in the Wind" does not impress so much on a second viewing.
In fact it often seemed slow-moving, torpid, over- talkative affair.
True, some marvelous ideas are broached in the dialogue, but a lot just seems to be marking time.
Whole slabs could be cut to advantage, e.g. a great deal of J.
Edward Bromberg's rhetoric.
And Francis Lederer overacts atrociously.
There's no denying, however, the innate power of many of the scenes, and the sheer originality of some of the film's subsidiary themes.
The powerful scene in which Granach attacks a woman on the pier with its background sound effects of whistling and laughter, its moody atmosphere and photography, can never be forgotten.
(Schufftan undoubtedly photographed the entire film with Dick Fryer pinch- hitting for him in the credits to satisfy the A.S.C.)On the whole, on a second time around, Ripley's direction does not seem as inventive and hard-hitting.
True, it's skillful and moody, but it does tend to emphasize close-ups.
On a repeat viewing too, the movie's shoe-string budget does become more apparent.
It was reportedly shot on a tight 12-day schedule – and I can well believe that statement!.
Voice in the Wind Blows Hot Air *.
You would think that a film about refugees fleeing Nazi Europe would sustain interest.Surprisingly, this film is utterly dull.
Francis Lederer, a Jew in real life, who fled the Nazi onslaught, as was the case with so many European actors, plays a pianist who was arrested by the Nazis for playing music which was forbidden by the regime.
Tortured, he suffers from amnesia.Meanwhile, he and his wife have fled to Guadalupe by 1940.
She has gone with her parents and while he plays his music, his wife lies terminally ill in a bed.
Her mother acts like the typical Jewish mother sobbing and bemoaning the fact of what has happened to her daughter.
Unknown to all, they don't know that each other is there until it's too late.J. Carrol Naish steals the film with a solid performance as an Italian captain in conflict with his own brother.The picture does not sustain you.
With the horns constantly blowing from the ships at sea, you can lose your concentration.
Come to think of it, that's not exactly bad with this turkey.