Expert: Mel - 5/4/2009

Question
Mel,
I,m hoping you can help me find the names of two movies that I have seen in the past.
The first one is probably in the fifties and I am not sure who the main actors where,however,the plot went like this.
An American airman returns to a village in France where he was stationed as a fighter pilot in the war to attend a re-union of his fighter squad ,only to find that the girl he was involved with at that time had a child to him that he knew nothing about. The daughter turns out to be a bit of a rebel and an anti-war campaigner.
The second movie is possibly a mini series I happened to catch on SBS around 10 -15 years ago. It was a German spoken,English subtitled film about an excavation team in the middle east somewhere who unearthed or "fell into" a tomb containing the remains of a person that carbon dated back nearly 2000 years. Underneath the body they found a package wrapped up containing the rotting remains of a booklet. The booklet turned out to be an instruction manual for a movie camera that was only just a prototype due for release in about 6 months time, however the book carbon dated to the same time as the body. The actors in this film where all unknown to me.

I really hope can help me here as I would like to see them both again.
Yours Faithfully,
Greg Page.


Answer
Hello again Greg,

Not quite as far back as you remember, the second film was made for German TV in 2002 and is titled "Das Jesus Video". It was screened on SBS in Australia in 4 x 1 hour episodes. It is sometimes referred to under the title "Ancient Relic". Here are a couple of links.......

http://tinyurl.com/cudxrt

http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Relic-Mathias-Koeberlin/dp/B000HC2M02


Glad to be of help. Cheers.........Mel.













Hello Greg,

The first film you mention sounds very much like a TV film made in 1985 called "Reunion At Fairborough". It starred Robert Mitchum (as the WW2 pilot), Deborah Kerr (as his one-time girlfriend) and Red Buttons (as an Air Force buddy). The only differences are that the veterans' reunion took place at a WW2 Air Force base in England, and the peace activist character is his grandaughter, not his daughter.

Although it is generally regarded as an excellent made-for-TV-film, it has never been available for purchase on VHS or DVD. However, searching the Internet will throw up certain sites that can provide bootleg copies.

Here are a couple of links.......

http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie/reunion-at-fairborough/

http://tinyurl.com/c6en3l


As for your second film/mini series, I can't place that one at the moment, but I'll keep searching.


Glad to be of help. Cheers.........Mel.