Tweet

Memorable for using a bombed-out Frankfurt as a location after WWII, Berlin Express brought a documentary eye to post-war film noir. Surprisingly Nick Riddle reports that the film predated The Third Man by a year!

Night-time pursuits through postwar ruins, partitioned European cities, black marketeers... Berlin Express predates The Third Man by a year, but somebody should programme them as a double bill.

Jacques Tourneur, director of classics like Cat People and Out of the Past, draws on a range of styles, from Hitchcock and film noir to documentary (complete with sombre voice-over). The plot concerns the kidnapping of a German diplomat who is trying to reunite his country, and the efforts of an ad-hoc alliance of strangers to save him. Robert Ryan is the earnest American groping his way through the bombed-out streets, not to mention the shadowy loyalties of his travelling companions. And a suspicious bunch they are too, a microcosm of the shellshocked, uneasy Europe of the late forties. What makes Berlin Express especially fascinating is how it captures a historical moment when the wounds of the War were still very fresh - the ruins of Frankfurt are shown in sobering detail - but when the idea of friendly relations between the US and the Soviets still seemed tenable.

 

Nick Riddle on 26th August 2010
View all 41 of Nick Riddle's reviews