**SPOILERS** What struck me most about the film "The Red Danube" was the very strong religious implications in it.
We have British Colonel Michael "Hooky" Nicobar, Walter Pidgeon, who's lost faith in an Almighty when his son who was preparing to study for the priesthood ended up getting shot down and killed over Germany in a bombing run. Being the good soldier that he is in following his superiors orders without question Col. Nicobar is later involved in deporting back to the USSR 21 year-old ballerina Maria Buhlen, Janet Leigh, without as much as a second thought! That despite Maria, who's real name is Olga Alexandrova, facing spending the rest of her life in a Soviet Gulag for leaving her country, the Soviet Union, without permission.
It's only after exiled Soviet scientist Prof. Serge Bruloff, Konstatin Shayne, blew his brains out in order to prevent him from being repatriated back to his "Mother Land" that Col. Nicobar started having second thoughts about the good will of his Soviet allies in Vienna where he's stationed. As for the luckless Maria she did manage to escapes being sent back, via cattle car, to the USSR by getting herself hidden for a while in a Vienna church as a nun. It was later on the promise of Red Army Col. Piniev also known as "Pinhead" to his friends, Louis Calhern, that Maria would be treated as a national hero, by his boss Marshall Stalin, back in Moscow that Col. Nicobar agreed to turn her over to him. Maria, not being fooled at all by Col. "Piniev's promises, fully knows that she's instead slated to be be shot for being a traitor of the Soviet Union! Knowing what she's facing Maria jumps out a two story window and ends up killing herself!
It's then that the Mother Superior, Ethel Barrymore of the church-the Order of the Daughters of the Holy Ghost that was hiding Maria during her exile in Vienna came to Col. Nicobar's rescue and showed him the way to redeem himself. This was by Col. Nicobar mistakingly, as if the Lord was secretly guiding him, taking a British General's, played by Alan Napier, star studded overcoat on his trip to Rome with the Mother Superior, in her being in the presence of a British General Officer, tagging along with him! It was that brazen act on Col. Nicobar part, that he in fact had absolutely no knowledge of, that turned things around not just for him but the United Nations who, in seeing what the Soviets were doing to their citizens in Vienna, rescinded the order to repatriate Russian citizens back to the Soviet Union! That's to prevent them from facing either curtain death or a life sentence in a Siberian Gulag.
***SPOILERS*** What turned out to be the biggest surprise or miracle of all was that the now reborn, in seeing the light, and former agnostic Col. Nicobar who was facing dismissal from the army for him disobeying a direct order, in refusing to turn over Russian citizens back to their "Mother Land", and even a possible stretch behind bars in the stockade was given a promotion to Brigadier General! The now befuddled and promoted General Nicobar, in him not quite grasping what was going on all abound him, was then put in charge of seeing that all this, sending Soviet citizens back to Stalin's Russia, was kept from happening!
P.S There's also in the movie British heartthrob actor, whom all the women in it were just nuts about, Peter Lawford as Col. Nicobar's good friend Maj. John "Twingo" MePhimister. "Twingo" both fell in love with the pretty Maria and tried unsuccessfully to keep her from being deported back to the Soviet Union which she, by killing herself, not him prevented from happening.
We have British Colonel Michael "Hooky" Nicobar, Walter Pidgeon, who's lost faith in an Almighty when his son who was preparing to study for the priesthood ended up getting shot down and killed over Germany in a bombing run. Being the good soldier that he is in following his superiors orders without question Col. Nicobar is later involved in deporting back to the USSR 21 year-old ballerina Maria Buhlen, Janet Leigh, without as much as a second thought! That despite Maria, who's real name is Olga Alexandrova, facing spending the rest of her life in a Soviet Gulag for leaving her country, the Soviet Union, without permission.
It's only after exiled Soviet scientist Prof. Serge Bruloff, Konstatin Shayne, blew his brains out in order to prevent him from being repatriated back to his "Mother Land" that Col. Nicobar started having second thoughts about the good will of his Soviet allies in Vienna where he's stationed. As for the luckless Maria she did manage to escapes being sent back, via cattle car, to the USSR by getting herself hidden for a while in a Vienna church as a nun. It was later on the promise of Red Army Col. Piniev also known as "Pinhead" to his friends, Louis Calhern, that Maria would be treated as a national hero, by his boss Marshall Stalin, back in Moscow that Col. Nicobar agreed to turn her over to him. Maria, not being fooled at all by Col. "Piniev's promises, fully knows that she's instead slated to be be shot for being a traitor of the Soviet Union! Knowing what she's facing Maria jumps out a two story window and ends up killing herself!
It's then that the Mother Superior, Ethel Barrymore of the church-the Order of the Daughters of the Holy Ghost that was hiding Maria during her exile in Vienna came to Col. Nicobar's rescue and showed him the way to redeem himself. This was by Col. Nicobar mistakingly, as if the Lord was secretly guiding him, taking a British General's, played by Alan Napier, star studded overcoat on his trip to Rome with the Mother Superior, in her being in the presence of a British General Officer, tagging along with him! It was that brazen act on Col. Nicobar part, that he in fact had absolutely no knowledge of, that turned things around not just for him but the United Nations who, in seeing what the Soviets were doing to their citizens in Vienna, rescinded the order to repatriate Russian citizens back to the Soviet Union! That's to prevent them from facing either curtain death or a life sentence in a Siberian Gulag.
***SPOILERS*** What turned out to be the biggest surprise or miracle of all was that the now reborn, in seeing the light, and former agnostic Col. Nicobar who was facing dismissal from the army for him disobeying a direct order, in refusing to turn over Russian citizens back to their "Mother Land", and even a possible stretch behind bars in the stockade was given a promotion to Brigadier General! The now befuddled and promoted General Nicobar, in him not quite grasping what was going on all abound him, was then put in charge of seeing that all this, sending Soviet citizens back to Stalin's Russia, was kept from happening!
P.S There's also in the movie British heartthrob actor, whom all the women in it were just nuts about, Peter Lawford as Col. Nicobar's good friend Maj. John "Twingo" MePhimister. "Twingo" both fell in love with the pretty Maria and tried unsuccessfully to keep her from being deported back to the Soviet Union which she, by killing herself, not him prevented from happening.