Review of Torn Curtain (1966) by Dave J — 10 Sep 2012

Tuesday, September 11, 2012.

(1966) Torn Curtain.

ESPINOGE/ SUSPENSE.

Very lifeless set up/ introduction has Paul Newman as Professor Michael Armstrong and Julie Andrews as Sarah Sherman as a couple of nuclear physicists aboard a cruise ship for a convention, it appears that Armstrong an American citizen was defecting the U.S. by selling his ideas to Germany since they were not championed, unoblivious to high government agencies that he's spying for the U.S., a double agent with his only motive was to steal a secret formula in which other people had failed to do.

The first real major problem is that Hitchcock never succeeds in convincing it's viewers that the Julie Andrews character as Sarah somehow stumbled onto the ride since it was Michael's original intention to bring her along but as a result of sticking her nose where it doesn't belong, Paul Newman as Michael eventually had to give in. Another one of it's major problems is that they're way too many coincidences particularly near the end. Politics are kept at a minimal and the Berlin Wall was never even mentioned nor the Cold War since in a real life situation even the great Hitchock can't convince it's viewers that the two protagonists are either smarter than it's German citizens. This film only succeeds because of the few original Hitchcockian moments unable to be seen on any other film in movie history like the bus scene even though the first half hour or so is so dreary one would have adapt the first half to be dissmissable and just pay more attention to the second half.

2.5 out of 4.