Die Glucklichen Jahre Der Thorwalds (1962) Reviews

An adaptation of John B. Priestley's play, ~Time and the Conways~, this standard drama focuses on the Thorwald family through several years and is distinguished by an excellent comeback performance by Elsabeth Bergner as Frau Thorwald. The family is well-off and contented when a tragedy strikes -- the father is killed in an accident. Frau Thorwald takes over the raising of her children, four girls and two boys with the youngest already fifteen years old. She manages to keep them together in spite of the fact that their economic situation deteriorates after World War I. Never one to look too critically upon her brood, the woman undergoes a moving and gradual transformation as the adult activities of her children bring home the fact that none of them are what she had once imagined. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi