Geographical Blooper
When Leamas was being driven from Holland to meet Fiedler in East Germany,
it could not be possible to drive from Holland to anywhere in East Germany. They did not share a border.
Franco... If you'll recall, "They" had Leamas's passport, which still had a week or so to run. They could have driven along the Dutch coast and easily crossed into West Germany, THEN driven across and over the Eastern German border. Depending upon where in Holland they'd begun their trip, the journey would only be approximately 300 miles, give or take. So, even if they'd driven at a speed of only 50mph, it would have taken no more than seven, maybe eight hours.
shareThanks, Tom--but, honestly, I served in the American Army in Berlin between the years 1978-1980, and as you well know, Berlin is "entirely" within the Old DDR--
and the Grunzpolizei both at the border with Denmark to enter into the Bundesrepublik, all throughout the Autobahn --even within the Bundesrepublik(West Germany) existed internal checkpoints, and once arriving at the Border with the DDR, if you take any conventional road, there is also "Exit Control" before you leave the Bundesrepublik and enter the DDR--
Nope--It would not have worked--but, it was a great movie, AND, the street scene used to make a "mock-up" Checkpoint Charlie was about the best I have ever seen in my life!! And that particular scene was done in Ireland!
Thanks for writing, Tom-
I agree - the 'German' scenes were pretty convincing (although I guessed the countryside scenes were Scotland before I saw the end credits) until right at the end when Leamas is on the wall, and in front of him you can see a building with some sash windows of the type you only get in the British Isles...but then I'm an architecture geek and notice these things...
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