Torn Curtain (1966)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writer:

Brian Moore (written by)

Release Date:

14 July 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Suspense! Azione! Sorpresa! [Suspense! Action! Surprise!]

Plot:

An American scientist publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the solution for a formula resin and then figuring out a plan to escape back to the West.

Plot Keywords:

Scientist | Germany | Leipzig | Europe | Director Cameo

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Paul Newman	...	Professor Michael Armstrong
Julie Andrews	...	Sarah Sherman
Lila Kedrova	...	Countess Kuchinska
Hansjörg Felmy	...	Heinrich Gerhard (as Hansjoerg Felmy)
Tamara Toumanova	...	Ballerina
Ludwig Donath	...	Professor Gustav Lindt
Wolfgang Kieling	...	Hermann Gromek
Günter Strack	...	Professor Karl Manfred
David Opatoshu	...	Mr. Jacobi
Gisela Fischer	...	Dr. Koska
Mort Mills	...	Farmer
Carolyn Conwell	...	Farmer's Wife
Arthur Gould-Porter	...	Freddy - the Bookseller
Gloria Gorvin	...	Fräulein Mann

Runtime:

128 min | Germany:126 min | France:126 min | Netherlands:118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German | Swedish | Norwegian

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

France:U | Spain:18 | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Germany:12 (re-rated) (video) | Brazil:14 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Peru:14 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | West Germany:16 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

According to the book "It's Only a Movie", Hitchcock said: "THERE WAS AN ENDING written which wasn't used, but I rather liked it. No one agreed with me except my colleague at home [his wife Alma Reville]. Everyone told me that you couldn't have a letdown ending after all that. Paul Newman would have thrown the formula away. After what he has gone through, after everything we have endured with him, he just tosses it. It speaks to the futility of all, and it's in keeping with the kind of naivete of the character, who is no professional spy and who will certainly retire from that nefarious business."

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Or their shadow, anyway. On the road-level shot of Armstrong's taxi leaving the farm (Gromek's motorbike is visible on the left of the screen), just at the very bottom of the image can be seen the shadow of the camera (4:3 television version only).

Quotes:

[first lines]
Professor Karl Manfred: Are they ever going to get the heating fixed?
Norwegian crewman: They are working at it, Professor. Perhaps some of you scientists would like to give us a helping hand!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 'Topaz': An Appreciation by Film Critic/Historian Leonard Maltin (2001) (V)

Soundtrack:

Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32

less than Hitch's best

The first time I watched "Torn Curtain," I grew bored and turned it off before it was over. I've watched it in its entirety more than once since then. It's difficult not to conclude that the master director's age was beginning to take its toll by 1966. It could have been a great film except for some major flaws.

First, the main characters. Newman and Andrews look distinctly ill-at-ease and their acting is wooden. There is very nearly no chemistry between them, and viewers are not really drawn into their somewhat implausible situation. Both actors are compelling in other films, but for some reason not in this one.

Second, Hitchcock would have done better to keep his villains' identity less specific. In "The Lady Vanishes", "The Thirty-nine Steps," and "North by Northwest," the identity of the foreign agents is left deliberately vague and thus little plausibility need be attached to their actions. Here they are East German communists, of which we know rather a lot.

Third, there are inconsistencies in the plot. At one point Newman and Andrews are forced to go out into an open space to avoid being overheard. But in another scene a pro-western spy communicates confidential information to Newman in a hospital room, seemingly oblivious to the possibility of wiretaps.

Finally, there's John Addison's score, which seems to have been written quite independently of the film's action. A suspenseful scene is inappropriately matched with cheerful, melodic music. Everyone knows, of course, that Hitch's longtime musical collaborator, Bernard Herrmann, wrote a mostly complete score for the film, but the two had a falling out on the set and Herrmann was dismissed. Another example of poor judgement on Hitchcock's part. Herrmann's score would have immeasurably improved a mediocre film. (Look at "Obsession" nearly a decade later.) With all the recent film restorations, I would love to see someone redo "Torn Curtain" and put in as much of Herrmann's score as the composer was able to finish. (But perhaps there would be copyright problems.) Had Herrmann's score been used, the murder sequence in the farmhouse might have become as famous as the shower scene in "Psycho."

As I was watching the protagonists flee through the East German landscape in their efforts to reach the west, I found myself thinking that, if they had only waited another twenty-three years, the wall would have come down anyway and they could simply have walked out! That's how much their plight gripped me.