The Man Between (1953)
Country: GB
Technical: bw 100m
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: Claire Bloom, James Mason, Hildegard Knef, Geoffrey Toone
Synopsis:
Visiting her brother, a British army officer, in Berlin after the war, a relatively unworldly girl is intrigued by her sister-in-law's secretive relationship with a black marketeer.
Review:
Although a retread of elements from The Third Man, this topical thriller remains a decently written, well crafted piece of entertainment worthy of its producer-director. Bloom is a conflation of the Holly Martins/Fraulein Schmidt roles, while Mason plays the charmed and charming titular figure, bestriding the opposing zones of post-war Berlin before the wall. There are the bombed out ruins of the old city, a child character who seems to have strayed from Germany Year Zero (or The Fallen Idol), the spoken German, low-key lighting, vehicular pursuits and controlled search of apartment buildings. But it is Bloom who makes it work differently: like her Nan, in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, she is in ways as naïve as Martins, yet both immediately onto something in her sister-in-law's behaviour and more forgiving of Mason's suitably vague dealings. It is a radiant performance.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 100m
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: Claire Bloom, James Mason, Hildegard Knef, Geoffrey Toone
Synopsis:
Visiting her brother, a British army officer, in Berlin after the war, a relatively unworldly girl is intrigued by her sister-in-law's secretive relationship with a black marketeer.
Review:
Although a retread of elements from The Third Man, this topical thriller remains a decently written, well crafted piece of entertainment worthy of its producer-director. Bloom is a conflation of the Holly Martins/Fraulein Schmidt roles, while Mason plays the charmed and charming titular figure, bestriding the opposing zones of post-war Berlin before the wall. There are the bombed out ruins of the old city, a child character who seems to have strayed from Germany Year Zero (or The Fallen Idol), the spoken German, low-key lighting, vehicular pursuits and controlled search of apartment buildings. But it is Bloom who makes it work differently: like her Nan, in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, she is in ways as naïve as Martins, yet both immediately onto something in her sister-in-law's behaviour and more forgiving of Mason's suitably vague dealings. It is a radiant performance.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 100m
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: Claire Bloom, James Mason, Hildegard Knef, Geoffrey Toone
Synopsis:
Visiting her brother, a British army officer, in Berlin after the war, a relatively unworldly girl is intrigued by her sister-in-law's secretive relationship with a black marketeer.
Review:
Although a retread of elements from The Third Man, this topical thriller remains a decently written, well crafted piece of entertainment worthy of its producer-director. Bloom is a conflation of the Holly Martins/Fraulein Schmidt roles, while Mason plays the charmed and charming titular figure, bestriding the opposing zones of post-war Berlin before the wall. There are the bombed out ruins of the old city, a child character who seems to have strayed from Germany Year Zero (or The Fallen Idol), the spoken German, low-key lighting, vehicular pursuits and controlled search of apartment buildings. But it is Bloom who makes it work differently: like her Nan, in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, she is in ways as naïve as Martins, yet both immediately onto something in her sister-in-law's behaviour and more forgiving of Mason's suitably vague dealings. It is a radiant performance.