Eh. Maybe I can't be grabbed.
So there's this annoying kid banging who refuses to stop when his mother tells him to. Most of us have been there, maybe on a plane. I think I'm not alone in imagining that such a child is sucked out of the plane and peace is restored. And I do say imagined. Fantasized. Not that we'd actually want harm to come to the child, but we can all imagine the child vanishing.
In this movie it happens. The child falls out of the train. Were this a dark comedy, this may be a hilarious moment followed by a snarky remark. Or maybe a lesson along the lines of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where the bratty kids get what they deserve.
But, it's a drama apparently and nobody is amused. They are all shocked and horrified that the kid who was just annoying the hell out of them is now either badly injured or dead.
However, one woman is impervious to what is going on around her and seems not the least bit phased. When others wonder how she can be so calloused, they notice a tatoo on her arm that implies she was a concentration camp survivor. And that's how she can be immune to horrors.
Sorry, not too interested in where it goes from there.
They could follow the woman and her child. Is it a story of him being terribly injured and his comeback or failure to while his mother's life falls to pieces in agony? Not interested. Is the child dead and we follow this woman's life through the agony of child loss? Doesn't seem like a topic for cinema back then, especially with that type of setup.
No, right before the credits, the focus shifted to this shell-shocked concentration camp survivor. So I'm guessing the rest of the story follows her. And return from the ashes seems to fit that thought.
But so far, the story has said nothing about her. She's shell shocked because she was in a concentration camp. OK. And I want to watch a movie with a virtually comatose woman why? Nothing's hooked me into her. Maybe back in the 60's in a pre Viet Nam world, there was some innocence and a curiosity about what happened. In today's world, I'm not intrigued. And I'm also guessing that, given a movie from the mid 60's, the portrayal of a concentration camp survivor is probably not an accurate one either and is toned down for the audiences of the day.
No offense, this just doesn't grab me. Can't think of anything I'd prefer off the top of my head. Hard to remember where the opening credits fall as they irritate me and I tend to block out memory of them. And so many good hook films are probably disqualified because the credits used to always open the show before you see anything else.