Return from the Ashes is a 1965 British thriller film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Ingrid Thulin, Maximilian Schell, Samantha Eggar and Herbert Lom. It is based on a novel by French crime writer Hubert Monteilhet, adapted for film by prolific screenwriter Julius J. Epstein. The novel would also serve as the source material for the 2014 German film Phoenix, directed by Christian Petzold, though the latter film makes multiple changes to the book's elements and concerns itself solely with the plot to reclaim an inheritance.
The films starts shortly before the Battle of France (1940) when chess master Stanislaus Pilgrin and the Jewish woman Dr. Michele Wulf have a romantic relationship. They get married, but Michele is sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Following the end of World War II, Michele is released and attempts to reunite with her husband and her step-daughter Fabi. The two plan to kill Michelle and claim her estate. The main theme of the film is attempted uxoricide.