A Time to Love and A Time to Die: Douglas Sirk's Most Personal Film

Jason Sacks and Michelle wrap up their Douglas Sirk series with his most personal film, 1958's A Time to Love and A Time to Die. Based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel, it follows a young German soldier on a three-week furlough through a bombed-out Germany in 1944, where he falls fast and hard for Elizabeth. Is Sirk imagining the life of the son he lost on the Eastern Front? Do American actors like John Gavin, Don DeFore and Keenan Wynn work as Germans? Would Paul Newman have been better in the lead? Plus Oscar, the SS man who's living large; Dorothea Wieck of Mädchen in Uniform as the landlady; the producer's cut Sirk never saw; why the film flopped in Germany; and comparisons to Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair and Judgment at Nuremberg. Spoiler warning: we discuss the devastating ending. 00:40 Sirk's most personal film 04:27 1950s hair in 1944 Germany 06:17 Oscar and the banality of evil 09:00 Dorothea Wieck as the landlady 10:12 Americans playing Germans 14:05 The Don DeFore problem 16:10 The wounded soldiers' kindness 18:03 What if Paul Newman had starred? 21:52 Love on a three-week furlough 28:19 Sirk and his son 29:53 The cut Sirk never saw 30:45 The ending (spoilers) 34:56 Émigré directors look back at Germany 38:02 Why Germany didn't want this film 41:55 Sirk's wounded soldiers