Rent The Man Between (1953)

Spy drama. - The Man Between review by Steve

This is a conspicuous imitation of Carol Reed's own The Third Man, this time set in the ruins of Berlin. And almost inevitably it got lost in the shadows of a legend. The Man Between suffers in comparison in many way, but most obviously the script. There isn't the moral complexity of Graham Greene's story, where the McGuffin of the diluted penicillin is genuinely poignant.

This time there's an East German spy ring kidnapping agents from the west. Claire Bloom is a young English tourist visiting her brother in pre-wall West Berlin. She becomes entangled in the schemes of a former Nazi soldier now working for the Communists, played by James Mason. Her naivety makes it difficult for her to understand how corrupt he is.

And his cynicism makes him utterly unable to comprehend her innocence. Which is an interesting contrast, and the film deepens when they fall in love during a long sequence while he helps her escape from his own comrades. Leading to a classic denouement, trapped between the check points in no mans land.

While this can't match the famous visual imagery of The Third Man, the b&w photography is still gorgeous, particularly of cold war Berlin in the snow. The stars are well cast. There's a fine, moody jazz score. The story is a bit of a muddle. It succeeds most as an atmospheric period piece, a photogenic fantasy of espionage on the edge of a new frontier.