Torn Curtain

1966 spy suspense movie

Rating: 13/20

Plot: It's trouble for a defecting scientist when his suspicious fiance/assistant follows him to one of the two Germanys that existed during the Cold War to see what he's up to.

Here's Hitchcock making a movie the exact same way he would have done it fifteen years ago and winding up with something pretty flat. Paul Newman looks bored, like he's surprised that this is what being in an Alfred Hitchcock movie is like, and he and Julie Andrews don't really feel like they're on the screen at the same time even in scenes where they are. The movie's often too talky, yet somehow you want more talking during the silently suspenseful parts. A quiet chase scene in a museum nearly worked, and a climactic series of events where the characters try to escape could have worked better had they been killed at the end.

And there's not a single curtain in the entire movie!

I did enjoy one fight scene, the positioning of scientists, and a cute little scene in which Newman finally explains to his girl what's going on, the characters inaudible as they stand on a hill far from the cameraman. By far, the best moments in this movie that don't have anything to do with Paul Newman having his shirt off involve Wolfgang Kieling's Hermann Gromek character. He's great at both lurking and knowing everything, and it's a shame that his character departs about halfway through, probably so that he could go find a Coen Brothers' movie to look simultaneously comical and menacing in.

Bored early, I decided to hunt for Uncle Alfred's cameo, and I was happy to find it. He was pretending to be a lamp in a hotel room.

I really missed a Bernard Herrmann's score here. Apparently, the two had had a falling out, leading Hitchcock to go with something really bland and unmemorable. I guess it fits perfectly with this movie though.