The Searching Wind on AllMovie

The troublesome years "between the wars" provide the backdrop for the romantic drama The Searching Wind. Adapted by Lillian Hellman from her own stage play, the film stars Robert Young as Alex Hazen, an idealistic but incredibly naïve US ambassador who fails to heed the warning signals when Mussolini and then Hitler ascend to power in Europe. Feeding into Hazen's ingenuousness is his beautiful but shallow wife Emily (Ann Richards), who is far more preoccupied with tuxedos and dinner gowns than with brown shirts and Nazi armbands. Only journalist Cassie Bowman (Sylvia Sidney), a character obviously based on playwright Hellman, can foresee the impending horror-even when her judgment is occasionally clouded by her undying love for Hazen. Benefiting from the mistakes of his elders is the Hazens' son Sam (Douglas Dick), who represents the "Never Again" viewpoint of the post-WW2 years. The Searching Wind was the sort of politically supercharged fare that earned Hellman condemnation as a "premature anti-fascist" during the infamous Hollywood Blacklist.