writers_reign Tepid Cold War melodrama with Carol Reed making a half-hearted attempt to replicate The Third Man. The biggest problem is that none of the principals appear to be committed to the project so that the overall impression is that all the main personnel - writer, director, actors - owed the Production company a picture and were just discharging their obligation. Every time something of interest pops up - Mason and Neff arguing as Bloom walks in on them - it is immediately diffused so that little or no mystery/tension is left and we are looking at a damp squib. Usually the name of Harry Kurnitz on the credits is a guarantee of a decent script but not, alas, on this occasion. Disappointing all round.

bensonj This is sometimes compared to THE THIRD MAN or ODD MAN OUT, but it reminded me of Ophuls' THE RECKLESS MOMENT, because Mason plays almost exactly the same character: a guy with a seedy past who gets mixed up with the heroine for criminal reasons but who sort of falls in love with her, shows his honorable colors, and winds up saving her at the expense of his life. And Mason played it almost exactly the same way (except for the accent). In the four years between 1949 (THE THIRD MAN) and 1953, the whole world changed. In 1949, the Russians giving Valli a hard time about her passport seemed just a part of all the horrors and discomforts of the immediate postwar experience. Here, the Cold War is full blown, a permanent condition, and it overpowers the film. There's nothing here that remotely matches Trevor Howard's deep, world-weary, mordant cynicism, or the maturity of Valli's character, brought about by living in the complex and appalling world of Europe at the end of WW II. Much of this film is flatly photographed, and the spy stuff that makes up the plot seems shallow and contrived, not remotely in the same league as Graham Greene's THIRD MAN screenplay. The Bloom character is a bit too naive, and the characters of Knef, her husband and the spy fighter are stick figures. Though it's entertaining enough in a minor way, it can only be described as a disappointment.

MartinHafer Claire Bloom has just arrived in post-war Berlin to vacation with her brother who is in the British Army and his new German wife (played by Hildegard Knef). Knef shows Bloom all about Berlin--both the Allied and the Russian sectors. In the east, the meet James Mason--a mysterious man who soon begins dating Bloom. However, there's obviously much more to the man than this and he and Knef share some secret. Later, through a strange series of events, Bloom is accidentally kidnapped and it's up to dashing Mason to help her sneak back to West Berlin--all the while pursued with Communists bent on their capture.The film has a look very similar to director Reed's more famous preceding film, THE THIRD MAN--which was shot in post-war Vienna. However, the camera work in THE THIRD MAN was more daring and novel and the Berlin took far worse damage during the war--and the sheer volume of rubble in 1953 is still very significant and adds to the atmosphere.Overall, while not a great spy film, it is very good and keeps your interest. I would say, overall, that the second half is a bit more exciting than the first. I especially liked the ending, though some might have preferred something a bit more upbeat.By the way, James Mason seemed to do a fairly good job with speaking German. I could tell he wasn't exactly a native speaker, but he was pretty adept.

st-shot Carol Reed keeps the post-war intrigue alive for the most part with his Odd Man Out lead James Mason in this trifle uneven and occasionally slow suspense film that strongly resembles the director's magnificent Third Man.Londoner Sussane Mallison (Claire Bloom) visits her serviceman brother and his wife in war torn Berlin. It isn't long before she suspects Bettina (Hildergard Neff) her sister in law of some type of deception. When she meets the mysterious Ivo Kern she is drawn into the action further, conflicted by the fact he is an extortionist and she is romantically drawn to him.Reed does a good job of keeping the audience in the dark for a good deal of the film with Mason and Neff both convincingly ambiguous and Bloom as innocent and confused as Holly Martins. The devastated Berlin backdrop with the ubiquitous visage of Stalin in the Eastern sector provide grim atmospherics with cinematographer Dietrich Dikisson ably filling in for Reed regular DP Robert Krasker.The editing which is a touch sloppy occasionally bogs the story down and the music score at times can be torturous to listen to but Mason's tragic turn as the cornered Kern never allows the film to fall into bathos for too long. He is the German version of the angry young man that would permeate film throughout the fifties and into the sixties and as The Man Between he is an eloquent spokesman in conveying the devastating disappointment of a generation betrayed by its government.