Am I Missing Something?

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

"Onkel Toms Hütte" is a West German color film from 1965, so this one already had its 50th anniversary last year. It is the German-language take on the famous "Uncle Tom's Cabin" story by Harriet Beecher Stowe, probably nothing I would have ever thought that it existed, but it was a positive surprise for the most part. I found different numbers in terms of this film's runtime. IMDb says 2 hours 50 minutes, other sources say 1 hour 50 minutes, but the version I saw was something in between, namely slightly over 2 hours and 20 minutes. The director here is Géza von Radványi and he was pretty successful and prolific back in the day. This one here is still among his most known films I guess. The cast is solid too. O.W. Fischer, O.W. Fischer, Michael May (in her first performance) and Mylène Demongeot had star potential and the title character is played by John Kitzmiller in his final performance very briefly before his death. The latter is mostly known for his Bond film performance today. Overall, this is not a perfect work by any means and it has difficulties occasionally in terms of keeping focus. Then again, it is almost impossible to do so for a film with this runtime. There are moments when it drags and I feel it should have been 35-40 minutes shorter. But I would still say it's a success overall. Especially the first third of the film was pretty interesting to watch. I myself am not too interested in the era the film portrays, but people who care more for this time and the historic context may actually end up really loving this film. I personally would only say I liked it. Not a must-see, but I still give it a thumbs-up, even if it struggles with getting shades on characters beyond the black-and-white depiction (no pun intended!) and the message it sends is an honorable one. Worth seeing.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" deals with slavery tears apart a black family in the South before the start of the Civil War . In these days Harriet Beecher Stowe's popular novel of Uncle Tom's Cabin is known more by historians as a contributing cause of the Civil War than as an actual literary work . Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible . Stowe was partly inspired to create Uncle Tom's Cabin by the 1849 slave narrative The Life of Josiah Henson , formerly a slave, now an inhabitant of Canada, as narrated by himself ; as Henson escaped slavery in 1830 by fleeing to the Province of Upper Canada -now Ontario-, where he helped other fugitive slaves settle and become self-sufficient, and where he wrote his memoirs . It talks Tio Tom (John Kitzmiller), obedient yet not lacking integrity , but a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby facing the loss of his farm because of debts and Tom eventually falls into the hands of the sinister Simon Legree (Herbert Lom) , a slave trader. "Uncle Tom" is a dutiful, long-suffering servant faithful to his white master or mistress . African-American slavers are afraid of the new strict fugitive slave law and some of them attempt to getaway . Eliza (Catana Cayetano) and her little baby escape from the plantation in the wintry night , their flight across the ice covered river, as there is a memorable scene of her flight to freedom across the ice flows with her son , but sympathetic northerners like the Quaker family you see rescue Eliza and her baby . During Eliza's escape, she meets up with her husband George Harris, who had run away previously . They decide to attempt to reach Canada . After that , St. Clare (O.W. Fischer) purchases Tom , the good black slave . St. Clare then asks Tom to educate her daughter Eva (Michaela May) . After Tom has lived with the St. Clares for two years, Eva grows very ill. There takes place the surreal death of little Eva . Then Tom sold to Simon Legree and the events go awry .This the best and only European film adaptation of the classic Harriet Beecher Stowe novel , one of the more expensive films for the time . ¨Tio Tom's cabin¨ successfully captures the mood of the old pre-war South while emphasizing the horror and immorality of slavery . ¨Uncle Tom's Cabin¨ or ¨Life Among the Lowly¨, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe , being published in 1852 , the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" ; the impact attributed to the book is great, reinforced by a story that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe at the start of the Civil War , Lincoln declared , "So this is the little lady who started this great war" . This is a surprisingly good , interesting, but, sentimental adaptation of the novel . The faith connection between Tom and Eva is completely described from the movie, yet one can appreciate the true nobility of their characters without seeing this bond between them brought about by a shared love of the world beyond . The film captures most of the highlights from the novel, including a very well done Eliza's flight across the frozen river pursued by bloodhounds , the death of Little Eva , and the villainous Simon Legree ; the film gets better as it goes along building to the exciting finale . John Kitzmiller gives a fine performance in the title role, John as lead role is outstanding as Uncle Tom . What is even more outstanding is the dignity and lack of minstrelsy in the way he is allowed to play him . Kitzmiller/Tom carries great emotional weight and manages to humanize slaves and rightfully demonize the institution of slavery itself . Special mention to villain Legree , perfectly interpreted by the great Herbert Lom . Released by Central Cinema Company Film (CCC) with all-European-star cast such as Herbet Lom , O.W. Fischer , Thomas Fritsch , Mylene Demongeot , Eleonora Rossi Drago , an uncredited Jeffrey Hunter ; furthermore two known singers : Juliette Gréco Eartha Kitt . This is a beautifully photographed film and a lavish production for the German cinema , being a France | Italy | West Germany | Yugoslavia co-production . Camera movements are fluid and plenty , as are the glossy close-ups , including a colorful cinematography . Evocative musical score , adding gorgeous songs sung by Eartha Kitt , Juliette Greco and John Kitzmiller . As it turned out , the film was a German box-office success . However , The book , the plays and films inspired and helped popularize a number of stereotypes about black people , these include the affectionate, dark-skinned "mammy" ; the "pickaninny" stereotype of black children . In recent years, the negative associations with Uncle Tom's Cabin have, to an extent, overshadowed the historical impact of the book as a "vital antislavery tool. There are various adaptations about this notorious novel, these are the followings : Silent rendition ¨Uncle Tom's Cabin¨ (1927) by Harry Pollard with Margarita Fischer as Eliza and James B. Lowe as Uncle Tom , it was a box-office flop despite the immense and decades lasting popularity of Stowe's novel and its stage adaptations ; TV adaptation (1987) by Stan Lathan with Avery Brooks as Uncle Tom , Kate Burton as Ophelia , Bruce Dern as Augustine St. Claire and Paula Kelly ; and exploitation picture also titled ¨Uncle Tom's Cabin¨ (1976) by Al Adamson again with John Kitzmiller as Uncle Tom , Herbert Lom as Simon Legree and Olive Moorefield .

Many years have passed since Geza Radvanyi directed this movie, an adaptation of an abolitionist cult novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, a very famous literary work that, similarly to other voices of truth in history, cried out for freedom, righteousness and equality in spite of attacks from politically correct people. The many I met as well as some reviewers on this board expressed their strong criticism claiming that the film is more a European uncle Tom interpretation. They also say that there are so many discrepancies between the book and the film that it is absolutely useless to see it. I agree, it is different, it is more ONKEL TOMS HUETTE than UNCLE TOM'S CABIN in its direction style and acting style; but it does not mean that Radvanyi's work is bad as a film.Let me first analyze the beginning scenes that really captivated me as original and raised my interest in the movie. What we are exposed to is something like "double retrospection." First, we see modern skyscrapers, Statue of Liberty and...the monument of Abraham Lincoln, a man who changed the destiny of many Americans, as the narrator adds. Immediately, the action moves more than 100 years back - April, the 14th, 1865: we see President Lincoln in the famous theater. On that day of his death, he is given the book UNCLE TOM'S CABIN by its author Harriet Beecher Stowe who thanks him for changing America. When things turn bad for Lincoln, we are supplied with the view of the novel's cover. This memorable close-up appears to constitute the answer why such a good man as Lincoln had to be assassinated... Was America still divided? From this moment, the film constitutes the adaptation of the novel. I described this beginning in such a detailed way because I found it exceptionally accurate and memorable. Later, it is true that the action seems to be quite slow, the film is long. Nevertheless, it has, sometimes unnoticed but important advantages that make it a nice film or at least significant to be seen by any film lover.It is, undeniably, the music. The wonderful Negro songs based on the Biblical texts as well as on their hard experience and thoughts raised in sorrow and suffering moved me to tears. The musical pieces about Moses and the Red Sea or the Missisipi River which was a sort of symbolic reference to the Bible are beautifully executed. The viewer, even if not very knowledgeable of the historical period, has a clear picture of the lifestyle, of dreams those people had, dreams of better times when the black and the white may join hands as free men. Therefore, with this music comes the idea, comes the American dream of liberty. This idea is more a universal subject of American history from abolitionists to Martin Luther King and those who will come after. And that makes the film a must see, no matter how faithful to the novel it is.It is also some performances that make Radvanyi's film worth a look. Herbert Lom, a German actor born in the Czech Republic, memorably portrays the cruel Simon Legree, a man for whom a slave is less than animal. Similarly to the book, he represents the whole system of the southern plantations where tears, beating, rape and overworking were the daily bread for the black slaves (not 100% plantations were like that for sure, which raised negative reactions towards the book among many southerners and the content was regarded as subjective). A lot of moments with Mr Lom remained in my memory but in particular the unforgettable scene when Legree comes to Shelby's house. The two world views are beautifully contrasted and this behavior of his, obscene and vulgar, is something that Herbert Lom accurately expressed. I also liked the Italian actress Eleonora Rossi Drago and Vilma Degischer, an Austrian who plays Mrs Shelby. They do fine jobs. Except for those facets, the movie is not that great as some other productions of the time. It's a pity that the colors and the cinematography in this film are seriously dated. Faded colors indicate the older years of cinema when the film was made but it is, I agree, the fact that lowers the value of this production from today's perspective. There were many better movies with magnificent cinematography in the 1960s than this one.All in all, if you look at this film as only a novel adaptation, you will be confused or even disappointed since each of us who reads the book first has his/her own view, imagination which is usually disturbed by the director's vision. If you look at this film from the perspective of the modern viewer, you will find it dated and not very attractive, perhaps. You should look at it independently, as an optimist viewer, frank one who can find good sides in each piece of art. Then, the movie will be worth seeing. UNCLE TOM'S CABIN has one thing absolutely in common with the book. It asks, of course nowadays a different generation, the questions that our ancestors were asked by Mrs Stowe: "Is there a right to humiliate someone, deprive him/her of dignity only because he/she was born black?"

**SPOILERS**One can only be pleasantly surprised by this intelligent adaptation of the American classic, especially since UNCLE TOM'S CABIN is so widely and unjustly attacked, pilloried and distorted.The novel's author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, was the daughter of the anti-slavery activist Henry Ward Beecher. The house in which she was raised was an Abolitionist nerve center: every character and every event in the novel is based on fact. Despite popular distortions, Stowe's title character is not at all remotely similar to what is commonly called an "uncle tom" (=an African American who sucks up to whites); he is a figure of towering dignity, one who takes his Christianity very seriously, who resists evil with all his being while rejecting hate and violence, who provides moral leadership for his enslaved neighbors, who is beaten senseless by his owner for refusing to flog a fellow slave and tortured fatally for not revealing the whereabouts of fugitive slaves. He is in fact proof that Martin Luther King's program of nonviolent resistance did not just derive from Gandhi but had roots in African-American culture. The portrayal of Tom in the film, by an almost unknown American actor, conveyed that brilliantly.Before commenting on the other actors, one should note (as another reviewer at this site has already done) that there are some weird and not very well conceived changes in the plot. For example, I cannot guess why Eliza's desperate flight across the ice floes of the Ohio River (historically true, by the way) was not in the film; a proper portrayal could have rescued this scene from the stupid cliches to which it has been commonly reduced, and could make it fully as harrowing as it ought to be. Nor do I understand why Tom's death (in the film) is due to a fall from a wagon, rather than (as in the book)his torture by a sadistic master, maddened by Tom's goodness and determined to break him by making him betray his friends.Be that as it may, the other characters are well acted also: Topsy, as in the book, is not the familiar "pixie" but (as in the book) near-autistic from neglect and abuse; Shelby is the deluded, weak liberal who congratulates himself for his kindness and magnanimity but is ready to rationalize selling Tom to pay a debt ("I'll buy him back someday"); Legree is the transplanted New Englander, hating himself for what he does, and sadistic like all those who spend their energy doing what they know they shouldn't, whose only companions are his likewise self-hating Black slave drivers and the slave girl of 15 whom he sexually abuses. All these portrayals are faithful to the novel.I also congratulate the filmmakers on their correction of the book's one great flaw, namely the portrayal of the saintlike child Eva. Stowe pulled out far too many stops in drawing Eva: her mushy sermons and preternatural goody-goodiness is so cloying as to be embarrassing to the reader. In this film, all that crud is mercifully toned down, though she does remain (believably) a child wise and gentle beyond her years; and we all HAVE known at least one such child, have we not?All in all, a most unexpectedly fine piece of cinema.