Main Cast: James Mason, Claire Bloom, Hildegarde Neff, Geoffrey Toone, Dieter Krause
Release Year: 1953
Country: UK
Run Time: 101 minutes
Plot
Young Britisher Susanne Mallinson (Claire Bloom) is visiting the occupied city of postwar Berlin, as the guest of her brother, Major Martin Mallinson (Geoffrey Toone) and his wife Bettina (Hildegarde Neff), whom he met during his initial stay in Berlin as a British Army doctor. They seem happily married, but Susanne soon notices that Bettina is trying to hide something, both from her and from Martin -- a secret involving a young boy (Dieter Krause) on a bicycle who seems to turn up everywhere she does, and figure whom she initially doesn't see. The truth finally comes out amidst a new skirmish between the British on one side and the East Germans in the Soviet zone on the other, and a man named Olaf Kastner (Ernst Schroeder), who seems to make a lot of mystery-shrouded trips in and out of the city's Russian Zone. Bettina was married to the mysterious Ivo Kern (James Mason), a handsome, smooth-talking former German army officer (with his own record during the Second World War -- as well as after -- to hide from) who was presumed dead after 1944, and declared so by the authorities. But now Ivo has turned up alive, an event that nullifies Bettina's and Martin's marriage, among other personal repercussions; and he has been working for the Russians in the eastern zone, engineering the kidnapping of people out of West Berlin. And he wants Olaf Kastner, who has been an embarrassment to the East Germans, and especially Kern's superior Halendar (Albert Waescher), with his success at rescuing people from the Eastern Zone; and Ivo might just get him if he can charm the wide-eyed, innocent Susanne sufficiently . . . . ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
Carol Reed wanted to work with James Mason, with whom he'd had one of his greatest triumphs (on Odd Man Out), and so he took on The Man Between, based on a story by Graham Greene. And the combination of Reed and Greene, which had worked so well in The Third Man, comes off nearly as well on The Man Between. The setting is postwar Berlin rather than Vienna, however, and political conditions in the city forced Reed to abandon his location shooting midway through. The results are still impressive visually and stylistically, even though the cast isn't as seamless in their performances as the players in The Third Man were. Hildegarde Neff's character isn't sufficiently well defined in the first half of the movie, and Claire Bloom's Susanna Mallison goes through a transformation midway through that stretches some credibility, from wide-eyed innocent and romantic fool to hard-edged cynic, though still with an attraction to James Mason's Ivo Kern. The main problem is Mason, whose performance is excellent but who is so obviously a non-native German speaker -- especially glaring when he is working in a scene with German actors -- that it destroys some of the carefully constructed mood of whatever sequence is involved, at least until the end, when this becomes a chase drama, and pure suspense takes over. Oddly enough, rather than recalling The Third Man, which was obviously in the minds of the producers and distributors, The Man Between ends up anticipating some elements of Martin Ritt's The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, made a dozen years later (and also co-starring Bloom). ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Ivo Kern (James Mason) is a former attorney who had once participated in Nazi atrocities, and is now selling his expertise to German communists to kidnap and transport certain West Germans to the eastern bloc. Although Kern desires to relocate to the West he is hampered by West German suspicions and his criminal past. Nevertheless, he agrees to a final kidnapping venture that fails, forcing his employer to take over and abduct Briton Susanne Mallison (Claire Bloom) by mistake. Kern had earlier feigned a romance with Mallison as a means to seize his kidnapping target.
The abduction of Mallison presents Kern with an opportunity to both return the unfortunate victim to the West and impress western authorities of his atonement. Despite Kern's selfish and darkened facade, Mallison still falls in love with the defector. She tells him that she can see humanity deep inside the former attorney who had once studied to defend the innocent and the 'rights of man.' This glimpse also appears to a young East Berlin boy who assists Kern and Mallison in their attempt to escape, as he follows Kern everywhere and the boy is treated with kindness. Kern almost admits his affection for Mallison on one occasion but he directs the conversation back to his sordid past and the escape attempt.
Ultimately, as Kern and Mallison are only a few feet from the Berlin gate while hidden in the back of a truck, their escape goes awry. Kern distracts the border guards as he runs from the vehicle, shouting at Mallison to hurry into the West. As her truck crosses the neutral zone and she reaches back for Kern, he is gunned down by the guards, and in doing so he gives his life to save hers.
