Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

dromasca I love seeing films half a century after their initial releases. It's not only a cinematographic experience that in many cases brings up unexpected gems, but also an opportunity to compare the acting and directing styles, the technical means, and the perspective on events, which some were actuality at the time the films were made and became history since then. In some cases it's also the opportunity to compare a fresh viewing with our own memories about the film, although this is not the case here with Torn Curtain , a late film by Alfred Hitchcock, whose Cold War theme seen from the Western perspective had no chance to pass the filter of the censorship in my native Romania at that time.There are many interesting elements in this story about a an American scientist (Paul Newman,) who plays spying games and simulates a crossing of the lines to East Germany in order to discover the status of a key weapon in the rockets arsenal of the Communist block. When his unknowingly fiancée (Julie Andrews) joins him against his will, his mission becomes more complicated. It's at the same time a psychological thriller (the fight of the minds between the American professor and his East German counterpart), an action movie, and a relationship story with some of the Hitchcock touch. As in many of his films, Hitchcock succeeds wonderfully in the thriller part, partially succeeds (or partially fails) in the action area, and fails completely in the romantic zone.50 years later, the very interesting part of the film is the rendition of the Cold War atmosphere. I have seen several films about that period, some more recent, and I was surprised how well Hitchcock succeeded to catch the feeling of the area without falling in any black-and-white clichés, describing a world close to what I knew, with people living under the pressure of a dictatorship, but still managing to joke, eat, drink, dance even under the scrutiny of the portraits of Karl Marx. There are less credible scenes - for example the whole auto-bus episode (why were these people traveling together at all?), but they belong to the action part of the script. Acting is decent, with Newman and Andrews doing what I remember they were supposed to do, but the most wonderful surprise is a poignant scene with the Russian-born actress Lila Kedrova which some may remember from Zorba the Greek . Her role there was unforgettable, so is the one here if you have the chance to see the film. A few daring Hitchcockian camera takes build the thriller part. A film to watch, especially if you are Hitchcock fans.

Hitchcoc I like Julie Andrews. I don't like her character in this film. She is portrayed as the stereotypical female of the fifties and sixties who can't keep her nose out of things. She is asked to do some things on faith, and off she goes to defy a simple request. She is constantly in the way in tense situations. But the plot is pretty good and while not a work of art, there is good tension and suspense. Of course, the East Germans are about as helpless as they can be, missing opportunities to put an end to Newman's activities. It is hard to tell who the good guys are sometimes. I have to say that the scene at the farmhouse is classic and shows how hard it is to kill someone without the aid of a gun. It seems endless as Newman and the woman do everything they can and are barely able to escape. By the way, do we ever get to know what happens to her or where she went. I'm hoping this fictional character was able to take off after burying the evidence. The final scenes are somewhat stock (the theatre thing was done already). Anyway, it's a really fun romp with signature actors.

jacobs-greenwood Alfred Hitchcock produced and directed this film (written by Brian Moore); it's a Cold War thriller that hardly does (thrill, that is), and barely resembles the director's other works excepting one scene in which he succeeds by showing how difficult it is to "kill a man". Having two of the day's hottest stars, Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, and running on for more than 2 hours didn't help it. The cast includes Lila Kedrova (who'd just won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Zorba the Greek (1964)), Hansjörg Felmy, ballerina Tamara Toumanova in one of her few movie roles, Wolfgang Kieling (who was to play twins in the original script) as the villainous security bodyguard, Ludwig Donath, Günter Strack, Gisela Fischer, Mort Mills, and Liv Ullmann-lookalike Carolyn Conwell.Newman plays American nuclear scientist Professor Michael Armstrong, Andrews his assistant and fiancée Sarah Sherman. Armstrong (in a sense) feigns defection to continue working on a project of his that was cancelled by the United States. In fact it had just stalled and he needed to pick the brain of a Russian named Lindt (Donath) who was behind the Iron Curtain. An East German professor (Strack) helps Armstrong make his passage, whereupon security chief Gerhard (Felmy) assigns Gromek (Kieling) to watch him and Sherman, who had followed her fiancé without knowing the ruse.When Armstrong contacts an amateur underground group named 'pi' (Mort Mills, playing a farmer), he and the farmer's wife (Conwell) have to kill Gromek in the aforementioned scene. Fischer plays a doctor and David Opatoshu (uncredited) plays a pi leader with a phony bus that help Armstrong and his now "in the know" fiancée with their escape.Kedrova plays (a deposed?) Countess Kuchinska, who also helps the couple, hoping her assistance will lead to their sponsorship, enabling her to leave the Communist state. Toumanova's ballerina, who at first provided some comic relief - having been insulted at the attention paid to Armstrong vs. herself, ends up figuring in some last minute drama when she recognizes him during the escape. Clever use of yelling "fire" in a crowded theater.

brchthethird I knew this moment would come, and that I'd eventually find a Hitchcock film that I didn't care for too much. TORN CURTAIN, while certainly topical in its examination of Cold War politics, nuclear secrets and double agents, largely fails to do what every other Hitchcock picture I've seen so far has done, i.e., be entertaining. Granted, there are a few sequences that recall classic Hitch, but they are barely enough to distract from how dull this was to get through at times. In what would be his last usage of "marquee" talent, Paul Newman and Julie Andrews star as a couple of scientists who publicly defect to East Germany at the height of the Cold War in order to gain access to an important formula or nuclear secret. Honestly, as the film's MacGuffin, this piece of information doesn't really matter (to the audience, at least). And that's fine. However, matters aren't helped by having such weak characters despite being capably played such talented actors and Newman and Andrews. Even the chemistry between them was barely better than Connery and Hedren in MARNIE. There was also no memorable villain. Still, at the risk of beating down too much on the film, there were a few sequences that I will probably remember for while. The best of these happens close to halfway in, and involves a tense brawl between Newman and an East German agent who has gotten onto his secret plans. It plays out sans score, and was incredibly tense. Towards the end, there was also a bus-riding sequence and a scene in a theater that recalled the climax to THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. It wasn't as good as the former, but still stood out. If there's one thing that's sorely missed, it's Bernard Herrmann as composer, here replaced by John Addison. I did like a number of the cues, but I can only imagine that Herrmann's score would have been much better. Even so, I liked the jazz-inflected touch that Addison brought to the material. Ultimately, though, TORN CURTAIN suffers by having terrible pacing and taking too long to really kick into gear. The last 40-45 minutes, minus a pointless semi-comic detour, is able to salvage some of what came before, but the film is still overall kind of boring.