Before Winter Comes 1969
Before Winter Comes
Drama/Comedy set in a refugee camp in occupied Austria after World War II. A shrewd multi-lingual interpreter who mediates between Russian and British military brass enters into a friendly rivalry with British Major Giles Burnside, who is in charge of assigning the displaced persons into either the American or Russian zones.
Drama/Comedy set in a refugee camp in occupied Austria after World War II. A shrewd multi-lingual interpreter who mediates between Russian and British military brass enters into a friendly rivalry with British Major Giles Burnside, who is in charge of assigning the displaced persons into either the American or Russian zones.
Videos & Photos
All 0 Videos & 2 Photoscast
Full Cast & Crew... Major Burnside
... Janovic
... Maria
... Lieutenant Pilkington
... Brigadier Bewley
... Captain Kamenev
User reviews
See All 1 Reviews03 Jun 2023 by CinemaSerf
David Niven stars in this rather unremarkable post-war comedy drama set in an Austrian camp that sorts out and repatriates displaced people. He leads the British contingent with Ori Levy ("Capt. Kamenev") his Russian counterpart with whom he has an uneasy sort of truce. Topol is their charismatic interpreter/peace broker "Janovic" who oils the wheels of their procedures - but he has a secret and when Niven and the Russian find out, he finds life becomes quite precarious. The comedy struggles, to be honest - Niven tries hard, but Topol too hard - neither seem to really want to be here. The presence of the naively optimistic young "Lieut. Pilkington" (John Hurt) and the cynical "Brig. Bewley" (Anthony Quayle) - who is aware of an incident in Niven's past, suggests that there is an underlying message in the film, but nothing really hits home. There are duty versus compassion clashes, and imperialist versus communist ones too - but the setting and characterisations don't support any real substance to these, and the films flails a bit before an ending that is surprisingly robust.
Producers:
Release Date:
Jan 17, 1969 (United Kingdom)
Run Time:
1hr 43`
MMPA Rating:
Original Language:
English
Production Countries:
United Kingdom
Status:
Released

Related Movies To
Before Winter Comes
David Niven stars in this rather unremarkable post-war comedy drama set in an Austrian camp that sorts out and repatriates displaced people. He leads the British contingent with Ori Levy ("Capt. Kamenev") his Russian counterpart with whom he has an uneasy sort of truce. Topol is their charismatic interpreter/peace broker "Janovic" who oils the wheels of their procedures - but he has a secret and when Niven and the Russian find out, he finds life becomes quite precarious. The comedy struggles, to be honest - Niven tries hard, but Topol too hard - neither seem to really want to be here. The presence of the naively optimistic young "Lieut. Pilkington" (John Hurt) and the cynical "Brig. Bewley" (Anthony Quayle) - who is aware of an incident in Niven's past, suggests that there is an underlying message in the film, but nothing really hits home. There are duty versus compassion clashes, and imperialist versus communist ones too - but the setting and characterisations don't support any real substance to these, and the films flails a bit before an ending that is surprisingly robust.
Cast & Crew of
Before Winter Comes
Directors & Credit Writers
... Director
AL
Ariel Levy... Assistant Director
Cast
... Major Burnside
... Janovic
... Maria
... Lieutenant Pilkington
... Brigadier Bewley
... Captain Kamenev
... Sergeant Woody
... Count Kerassy
... Kovacs
MM
Mark Malicz... Komenski
... Russian Major
... Beata
... Bill
... Ted
... Johnny
... Russian Corporal
HF
Hugh Futcher... Joe
CS
Colin Spaull...
LD
Larry Dann...
...
Produced By
... Producer