Lots of moving parts to keep track of in this dandy post-WWII/cusp-of-the-Cold-War international thriller. But no scorecard needed for its densely packed 87 minutes of characters, plot reversals & politics thanks to Jacques Tourneur direction that always points us the right way (especially when he’s deliberately faking us out) and an unusual amount of scene-setting narration from Paul Stewart. (Some object to this much voice-over; too novelistic or something, but it works well here.*) Set on a Paris-to-Berlin run that proves anything but EXPRESS, every unscheduled stop a chance for intrigue or murder as travelers from all four sectors in charge of post-Nazi Berlin (American Robert Ryan; Brit Robert Coote; Frenchman Charles Korvin; Russian Roman Toporow) wind up helping Merle Oberon search bombed-out Frankfurt for the kidnapped peacemaker she’s escorting incognito to a summit. Those are doubles for the stars in the considerable location footage of bombed out German cities, but the Hollywood shot interiors (from Merle Oberon's husband lenser Lucien Ballard) generally well-integrated. Four or five gasp-worthy ‘reveals’ & surprises in here though a tag ending probably looked too hopeful even at the time.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Out the same year, Billy Wilder brought his distinctive take on post-war intrigue between sectors of a still divided Berlin in his bitter, much underrated dramedy A FOREIGN AFFAIR. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-foreign-affair-1948.html
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Wonder if the narration was always in the script or added after a bad preview.
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