This was a superb film. It blended romance with Cold War suspense like no other. I had to wait several years for TCM to show it so that I could tape it. Very rare, but excellent. Right up there with Carol Reeds’s other masterpieces, The Third Man and Our Man in Havana.
shareYou forgot Odd Man Out. Is it because you haven't had the chance to see it or because you didn't like it all that much?
I must say, the more I watch Carol Reed, the more I'm impressed. After the unfortunate A Kid for Two Farthings, this film absolutely restored my confidence in him. An excellent, masterful director who people too often discredit. It's a strange thing, since he has such a distinctive style. This film showcased this perfectly. Angles, shadows, magnificent shots, the way the story unfolds... Carol Reed strikes again.
We're the heirs to the glimmering world.
Thanks. Actually, I have seen Odd Man Out too. It was a stupendously acted film, but perhaps I liked The Man Between more because it was anti-Communist, which is a viewpoint long hard years on every corner of the political spectrum have taught me to respect.
shareI'm watching it now, and it's magnificent.
The ugly, still-ruined Berlin with its grotesque Stalin and Lenin posters everywhere, is like another character in the film, as menacing as any secret policeman. The bleak black and white cinematography is superb, as is the odd, eerie soundtrack.
I agree. Great film, ranks with Carol Reed's best. Just saw it on the big screen in NYC. A shame that a DVD is unavailable at this time.
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Movie girl: I agree that the direction, screenplay, acting, editing, music and photography are all outstanding!
James Mason is splendid as the dishonest and jaded Ivo Kern. In turn, we see
Claire Bloom who turned in a wonderful performance as the innocent Susanne who believes Bettina is married to her brother. We don't see much of her brother Martin who appears to be naive as well. (I do not know if this was a front to protect Susanne's brother or Ivo).
Hildegarde as Bettina, was beautiful in her anxiety and sorrow. I believe she was very worried about Ivo and did not want to mention it to her "sister-in-law".
The boy on the bicycle seems to be everywhere in the film. When viewing it again I noticed that he even surfaces at the airport when we see Susanne arrive in Berlin. I believe his devotion was to Ivo, but wasn't certain. He does represent the untamed and untainted child like the boy in The Fallen Idol, another magnificent film.
Odd Man Out is another magnificent film of this type. I just wanted to say I like your review. It is well said.
The good news about this film is that it was recently shown on TCM. I was able to make a great DVD copy.
Yeah, many excellent non-German movies were filmed in Berlin post-WW 2, from Rossellini`s Deutschland Im Jahre Null and Wilder`s A Foreign Affair to The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Funeral In Berlin in the mid-1960`s. What made this one truly stand out for me, was the beautiful, perfectly utilized soundtrack - even though the cinematography and Mason`s world weary performance were also excellent. Yet to see a bad Carol Reed picture.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
To your list, don't forget to add Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three!, a splendid comedy contrasting with a then-partially ruined Berlin.
shareThis movie was great and the Berlin backdrop simply numbing when one considers that this was filmed sometime after the war. One, Two, Three is similarly filmed in Berlin but several years later. True classic and one of Cagney's best films, certainly his funniest !
shareMovie girl: Thanks! Have not seen One, Two, Three! yet.
shareJames Mason won the best actor award from the National Board of Review. And Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote: "...It must be said, without reflection, that the credit for whatever there is in the way of exciting melodrama in this primarily atmospheric film goes to Mr. Reed for his direction of the actors and camera. For it is the attitudes of his people, the moods of the city in various scenes and the cleverness of the assembly, rather than the sharpness of the story told, that account for the modest distinction on the quality level of The Man Between."
It is better to be kind than to be clever or good looking. -- Derek
I love this film - Mason, Bloom, Neff, the story, photography, the soundtrack, everything. Ivo Kern was the kind of character that Mason was born to play, the archetypal antihero - anguished, disillushioned, complex, intense, mysterious, dangerous, sexy as hell, and doomed. No one did this better than Mason, no one. Plus, it has Mason's best screen kiss of all his movies that I've seen.
shareIf you read my review then you would know, from a biography written by his former sister-in-law and life long friend, that that kiss may have been his best because he had fallen for Bloom, even though he was still married.
shareHi Kitsilanoca,
Yes, and one wishes he had left that marriage long before he did because it gave him years of misery. Not to mention that he was virtually a wage slave and spent years paying off the divorce settlement ( $1,500,000, it was the first million dollar settlement in Hollywood history) and supporting Pamela and her children. De Rosso only scratches the surface of the toxic nature of that marriage.
Like you, I love the haunting soundtrack and wish I could get a CD of it. But, my search has only found a compilation of Addison's compositions, on which THE MAN BETWEEN soundtrack is about 3 minutes long.
Are you a Mason fan? He remains my favorite actor and I have about 60 of his films in my collection. My favorites are ODD MAN OUT, THE SEVENTH VEIL, THE MAN BETWEEN, THE NIGHT HAS EYES, THE MAN IN GREY, TIARA TAHITI, LOLITA, A TOUCH OF LARCENY, THE RECKLESS MOMENT, and THE UPTURNED GLASS. As you can see, I especially love his early black and white films and the ones he made in Europe. I loathe GEORGY GIRL and do not care for NORTH BY NORTHWEST.
Next May, I'll be in UK and will interview the former president of the James Mason Appreciation Society. What's quite interesting about this woman is that she was a friend of Diana De Rosso and Tony (De Rosso's brother).
Sorry to run on and on.
Wish I could rate a film that I love every time I watch it. Every time I notice more amazing details I've overlooked. And I'm not talking here about Claire Bloom. She is the reason I miss all those details. She is wonderful.
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