Claire Bloom travels to Berlin to visit her brother (Geoffrey Toone) and his German wife, Hildegarde Knef, who seems to be up to something. Then somewhat shifty James Mason turns up, and the plot thickens. Bloom is radiant in earlyish role; Mason's accent less convincing.
Good on location filming of the wintry city by Desmond Dickinson, with Reed throwing in his famous Dutch tilts here and there.
Wasn't quite sure the lapse into romantic was working but the ending - all flight and tension - is highly successful.
Good support from Aribert Wäscher as the ruthless East German and Ernst Schröder as the agent he's after. Schröder was a noted theatre actor, also appeared in The Longest Day and The Odessa File.
We know Knef from Fedora but one of her first films was the important German post-war drama Die Mörder sind unter uns in 1946.
Written by Harry Kurnitz, from a story by Walter Ebert. Music: John Addison. Production design: Andrej Andrejew. Camera: Denys Coop, Robert Day. Editor: Bert Bates.
No comments:
Post a Comment