Neatly turned suspenser, filmed on location (and on a dime) with West Germany standing in for East Germany in a Cold War tale. José Ferrer, recently scythed off Hollywood’s A-List, brings unsettling malice to the modest production, playing a cynical shit of a reporter forced to take an American military train with special dispensation to travel thru Soviet controlled East German territory on its way to West Berlin. With a carefully vetted passenger manifest triple checked, no one suspects that an East German defector has jumped aboard en route. But when news of a missing man leads to Ruskie suspicions at the final checkpoint, there’s a last-minute demand for a fresh check. Not on Lt. Novak’s watch! Question the honesty of the American officer in charge? And so begins an East/West face-saving standoff. Director Rolf Hädrich gives good weight when forced to work in the constricted space of real train car compartments & corridors. And has a trick up his sleeve in Sean (son of Errol) Flynn playing the Lt. caught in a series of lies not of his own making. Properly delegating authority with every emergency message. Trying to do the right thing as his career melts away thru circumstances out of his control. Tall & handsome, if without Dad’s charisma and natural charm, he can even act! The rest of the cast largely unknown, but more than equal to the film’s small demands before ending with some surprisingly tough non-answers to diplomatic and political questions. Taken on its own terms, a find of modest proportions. With Ferrer, atypically allowed to stay troublesome, never warming up; he's a wise prickly ass right to the end.
DOUBLE--BILL/LINK: Early example of post-WWII/Pre-Cold War suspense on a train in Jacques Tourneur’s BERLIN EXPRESS/’48. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/06/berlin-express-1948.html
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