Heretical though it may be, I prefer this movie to The Third Man; good though the latter film is, it can't possibly live up to the reputation that has accrued around it over the years. Both are poignant -- even shocking -- glimpses into the shambles that was post-war Europe (though neither can compare, for realism, with, say, Rossellini's Open City). The brutal "assassination" comes swiftly and without warning, and if the intrigue seems a little tired, the actual locales in Frankfurt and Berlin have a timeless documentary force. Robert Ryan isn't as effective as he was playing edgy, unbalanced protagonists, and Merle Oberon seems just plain wrong as a secretary (she's more of an aristocrat-fallen-on-bad-times). But the action sequences on the train recall some of the best such movies (The Lady Vanishes, The Narrow Margin -- the Charles McGraw/Marie Windsor version). All in all, a worthy little thriller from Jacques Tourneur, director of the masterpieces The Cat People and Out of the Past.
Review of Berlin Express
