Movie Type: Unglamorized Spy Film, Action Thriller
Themes: Assassination Plots
Main Cast: Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin, Paul Lukas, Robert Coote
Release Year: 1948
Country: US
Run Time: 86 minutes
Plot
On a trip from France to Allied-occupied Berlin, a group of travelers -- a mysterious and very secretive European woman (Merle Oberon), an American agricultural expert (Robert Ryan), a British educator (Robert Coote), a Soviet Army officer (Roman Toporow), and a French official (Charles Korvin) -- all cross paths in the cramped quarters of a military train. They discover that the notion of the "Allied forces" is breaking down amid their victory in the war; they neither like nor trust each other, nor each other's countries, except where the Germans are concerned, where they share a distrust. And then they cross paths with a German VIP who makes them wonder if they've got all of the Germans pegged right. A bomb goes off, killing their newfound acquaintance, and the suspicions start anew. The mystery surrounding the victim only deepens when they discover that he wasn't who he claimed to be -- and that the army isn't saying who he was. Ryan, Oberon, et al. soon find themselves up to their necks in unrepentant Nazis and militant German nationalists who have banded together against the occupiers to destroy any chance of success for a peace plan being put forward by a visionary German (Paul Lukas). They find Frankfurt a hotbed of sabotage and armed underground resistance, with the occupying armies seemingly caught flat-footed by the plotting in their midst, which includes murder and blackmail. Berlin Express is a spellbinding mix of action, suspense, and topical political intrigue, laced with idealism and a surprising degree of sophistication, a level a wit almost worthy of Graham Greene, and an eye for suspense worthy of Hitchcock. Indeed, the film could almost be considered director Jacques Tourneur's postwar equivalent to Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940). It also represents a fascinating cultural snapshot, depicting the very last moments of hope for peaceful relations with the Soviets that could be seen in American movies for decades. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
Jacques Tourneur's Berlin Express came out of that same school of thriller-making that generated Henry Hathaway's The House on 92nd Street at Fox, except that it was a lot better and more exciting. The extensive use of location footage, the documentary-style shooting and narration, and the reliance on strict verisimilitude all recall Hathaway's movie, as well as Alfred Werker's and Anthony Mann's He Walked by Night. Unlike the Fox film, Berlin Express was fiction, a thriller of today (in 1948), and it was able to engage in storytelling on a level that no fact-based thriller would permit of its script. Indeed, the location shooting in occupied postwar Germany and the turmoil of postwar France, coupled with a script that alternates between the subtle comedy of human foibles and the bitterness and distrust in the air in the period immediately after the war, make the opening 25 minutes of Berlin Express feel like a dry-run for Carol Reed's The Third Man. The tone isn't nearly as wry as Reed's movie, but the basic idea and mix is there, juxtaposed with a police procedural tone similar to He Walked by Night -- and in place of the romantic triangle at the center of the Reed movie, there is a top-flight spy thriller. Curt Siodmak's script could easily be the best of his entire career, by turns (and sometimes even simultaneously) comedic, serious, and sardonic. The tone turns decidedly grimmer around 45 minutes into the film, and from there, we get a more intensely serious film, with two scenes (one involving a mortally wounded man in a clown suit who is trying to pass along vital information in front of a laughing audience, and the other a mirror shot) that are as good as anything Alfred Hitchcock ever conceived. Tourneur handles his actors as well as his action beautifully, Merle Oberon sacrificing some of her glamorous image for a serious acting role and Robert Ryan, Robert Coote, Charles Korvin (later a blacklistee), and Roman Toporow melting into their portrayals of Allied representatives who are roped into the case. In the ruins of Frankfurt and Berlin, cinematographer Lucien Ballard does some of his best work, shooting in such locations as the narrow corridors of a darkened train and the wreckage of a bombed out brewery. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Reinhold Schünzel - Walther; Roman Toporow - Lt. Maxim; Peter Von Zerneck - Hans Schmidt; Otto Waldis - Kessler; Fritz Kortner - Franzen; Michael Martin Harvey - Sgt. Barnes; Richard Powers - Major; Frank Alten - German Steward; David Clarke - Army Technician; James Craven - British Major; Arthur Dulac - Dining Car Steward; Carl Ekberg - German; Fernanda Eliscu - German Woman; Gene Evans - Train Sergeant; Richard Flato - Master of Ceremonies; Tom Keene - Major; Rory Mallinson - M.P. Gaurd; Charles McGraw - Col. Johns; Jim Nolan - Train Captain; Larry Nunn - 1st G.I.; Bill Raisch - German; Buddy Roosevelt - M.P. Sergeant; Norbert Schiller - Saxophone Player; Leonid Snegoff - Russian Colonel; Ray Spiker - 1st Husky; William Stelling - American Sergeant; William Yetter, Jr. - 1st German Youth; Robert Boon - 2nd German Youth; Roger Creed - M.P.; Bruce Cameron - 2nd Husky; Jim Drum - 2nd G.I.; Hans Moebus - Clerk; Allan Ray - Corporal; Robert "Buddy" Shaw - Sergeant; Fred Datig Jr. - American Jeep Driver; George Holt - German
Credit
Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Alfred Herman - Art Director, Charles O'Curran - Choreography, Orry-Kelly - Costume Designer, Jacques Tourneur - Director, Sherman Todd - Editor, Frederick Hollander - Composer (Music Score), Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Gordon Bau - Makeup, Lucien Ballard - Cinematographer, Bert Granet - Producer, Darrell Silvera - Set Designer, William L. Stevens - Set Designer, Russell A. Cully - Special Effects, Harry Perry - Special Effects, Harold E. Stine - Special Effects, John C. Grubb - Sound/Sound Designer, Clem Portman - Sound/Sound Designer, Curt Siodmak - Screen Story, Harold Medford - Screenwriter
