 The production unexpectedly ran out of money halfway through and  halted for several months in order to find new investors. This ended  up working in its favor, since the young lead actor  Marcell Nagy (I) (qv) was going through puberty, and by the time  they restarted he looked physically more mature, taller, and his  voice deeper. By the time his character enters and survives the  death camps he looks years older than when the film began, adding an  element of reality that otherwise would have been created with make  up