Director Carol Reed courted unflattering comparisons to THE THIRD MAN/’49, his famous post-war political thriller set in a divided Vienna, with a follow-up Cold War suspenser set in a divided Berlin. In theory, the stories are different enough, though hard to say for sure since scripter Harry Kurnitz’s heavily rewritten plot & characters are all but impossible to sort out. (And Reed knew it, trying to get THIRD’s Graham Greene to rewrite.) Stuck to a production timetable, he plunged on, hoping location & atmosphere would see him thru. Something or other to do with James Mason’s two-faced East Berlin agent working to stop defectors (with kidnapping; blackmail; pay-offs); or is he setting himself up for a run? His current blackmail target: West Berliner Hildegard Knef (overly-agitated; looking disconcertingly like Ginger Rogers). With a shared past and Knef's newly arrived British sister-in-law (Claire Bloom) in town, Mason’s just the fellow to be their guide on a visit to East Berlin. Complications ensue . . . but don’t add up. Reed was half right about getting by on atmosphere & on-site photogenic stops, pulling out a visual tour de force in a night-time climax as Mason, Bloom & a tagalong boy on a bike try to out run East Berlin authorities thru a construction site, a slow moving train on a bridge, sausage sellers and sidecar rescues. Sheer cinematic bravura from Reed that should have ended the film. Alas, a second climax comes off as forced, created to wedge in a suitably tragic ending.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Mason certainly has an odd (and oddly beautiful) German accent. But then, he also had an odd (and oddly beautiful) English accent.
DOUBLE-BILL: Mason’s protective relationship with Bloom not so different than his with Joan Bennett in one of his greatest films, Max Ophüls THE RECKLESS MOMENT/’49.
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