MovieChat Forums > Torn Curtain (1966) Discussion > There are at least 20 minutes to love th...

There are at least 20 minutes to love this

posted 7 years ago by dejavu73
3 replies | jump to latest

I can understand why some people don't get the potential of this movie: Julie Andrews is not Mary Poppins in here anymore and Hitchcock has to deal with a plot that is unconventional for his standards. Neverthless I think these are points of strenght for "Torn Curtain". I see no miscast in it and I can appreciate Hitchcock's style all over in it.

There are almost twenty minutes in the flick about the pained Gromek's killing and the complicated escape from Lipsia on the bus. The bus is a typical example of how Hitch could restrain a substantial issue about the curtain crossers in a little room as he did in "The Birds" by showing an entire village under the animal attack through one point of view in a phonebooth.

The bus scene and the murder at the farmhouse make Torn Curtain a masterpiece for me and could make it at least very enjoyable to watch for the detractors.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

The bus scene and the murder at the farmhouse make Torn Curtain a masterpiece for me and could make it at least very enjoyable to watch for the detractors.

--

Some of the reviewers at the time said "its mediocre Hitchcock...which is still better than the best of many other directors."

Which is true.

I truly don't "get" a lot of the dumping on Torn Curtain. It doesn't work at the high entertainment level of Rear Window or North by Northwest -- and Hitchcock WAS getting older and more tired -- but his stylistic design and intelligence is there every step of the way.

I would add the "chalkboard duel" to get the information from the German scientist as a another great scene. We can't understand the formulas at all -- but we understand what's going on. And we know that Newman is in increasing danger to be arrested as we hear the call for him to be captured over the loudspeakers..

"Torn Curtain" is a Hitchcock movie. "Good" and "bad" don't really apply . Just gradiations of "good to great."

[–] TheArgentinian (6426) 4 months ago

The whole first act drags. But it picks up during the farm scene.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 months ago

Newman is basically an "undercover cop" but as a fake defector to the Communists.

From the farm scene on, Newman is in danger of getting his cover blown. He must get the formula out of the German scientists head, and escape home from the Iron Curtain with Andrews. The chase is on!

Hitcockian suspense simplicity. Good stuff.