User Reviews

Carol Reed and James Mason...it's Odd Man Out, isn't it? Wrong! Reed and Mason also teamed up for the rarely-seen, relatively inferior, yet quite valuable The Man Between six years later. While the film is nowhere near the masterpiece that Odd Man Out is, it has a number of redeeming virtues and is a must-see for James Mason fans.

Reed again focused his plot on his events that occur in city in turmoil. Last time it was Belfast and Vienna (The Third Man. Now it's post-war Berlin, and Germany divided into two. Reed liked these atmospheric, shadowy, morally bleak settings (they become almost a "character" in the film), and the physical (the East-West divide in Berlin, the zones of Austria) and emotional (the attitudes of the citizens of Belfast)barriers that engulf and separate people.

The Man Between was filmed in both Berlin and London, as Odd Man Out was also in Belfast and London and The Third Man in Vienna and England. Yet it doesn't have the visual pull of the other two films- perhaps because Robert Krasker is missing, but probably more so due to a smaller budget. The photography is nowhere near as inspired as in the other two films, and the filming in the first half of The Man Between is rather flat and ordinary. Once we get to the "love-on-the-run" scenes however, it picks up markedly and we start getting the trademark Reed camera tilts, shadowy streets and inspired visual flair.

Claire Bloom, that lovely, intelligent, graceful and ethereal actress, gives a wonderful performance as Sussan Mallison, a young English girl who travels to Berlin to visit her brother and his wife Bettina (the excellent German actress Hildegaarde Neff, looking strikingly like Ginger Rogers!). The film is really about Susan's personal journey, as she goes from seeing things in black-and-white at the beginning of the film to falling in love with Ivo Kern (James Mason), a criminal.

Ivo Kern immediately draws comparisons to Harry Lime in The Third Man and many have referred to Mason's performance (and the overall film) as a pale imitation of the earlier film, and a desperate attempt by Reed to repeat the success of The Third Man. Well, I have to disagree. Of course Reed wanted to make another film as successful, but he doesn't tell the same story in this film, no. The narrative is much more focused around the romance between Sussan and Ivo, whereas Lime is callous in his treatment of Anna (Valli), telling Holly Martin "to be good to Anna, you'll find that she's worth it". He only really sees her as a person that he can use; Kern wants to protect Sussan. And Kern, even though he is delved into post-war crime activities, still maintains his moral core...he seems tired, an unwilling accomplice in the attempt to get hold of Kestner.

Perhaps the film falters in that's it's themes and concerns are not as powerful as Odd Man Out or The Third Man, Reed seems to be lacking inspiration at times here. But the performances are excellent- Mason and Bloom are a joy to watch.Apparently Mason fell deeply in love with the young actress at the time of filming. And the chemistry shows. They seem so intuitive together in their acting-its the quiet moments, the glances and the touch of a hand, that almost give it away. They only kiss once, but it's still probably Mason's hottest screen kiss. It is lovely to watch these two work together, and so poignant (when you know about the off-screen stuff) to watch their final scenes together ("Will we ever meet again, Ivo?").

Perhaps the film's main flaw is that the first half is much too plot-driven, you really have to pay close attention to the film to know what is going on with the Kestner plot, otherwise you'll be confused (the heavily accented English from the German actors makes it even harder, though Neff is a clear and wonderful speaker). Mason too affects a German accent, similar to what he did with Rommel in The Desert Rats (he sounds a lot like one of my Uni lecturers who is German, so he must have been doing something right).

See it for the wonderful Mason and Bloom performances, chemistry and their scenes together. It's a good little film.

Sometimes a good movie blows you away from the get-go. This one took the light of the next day. Carol Reed cleverly disguises his picture with post war intrigue and ambiguous alliances / conspiracies in the first half, but this is ultimately at its heart the story of an impossible romance attempted at an impossible time. While it takes a good half of the movie to get to the real plot, once it cooks, it sizzles. The extended chase sequence in the last third of the movie probably tops the far more famous THE THIRD MAN, though it is a little less frantic and far more deliberately cat and mouse.

All of the cast is excellent, including the fetching and intriguing blonde wife, the mysterious young bicyclist, and the rotund, scheming elder German kidnapper. Leads James Mason and Claire Bloom (never prettier or sexier) have amazing chemistry as the picture develops, and one really wishes they had gotten together an hour earlier, because this is the heart of the matter and the meat of the movie.

Another major star of this movie is the location photography. The light and shadows draped on the characters flitting in and out of the jagged yet beautiful exo-skeletel ruins and debris of the once-glorious, cosmopolitan city of Berlin are hypnotic and amazing. The cinematography is remarkable; there is great POV work of the snow-covered kidnap vehicle stalking Bloom, but even better camera angles and lighting creativity in the bravura chase in the last 20 minutes (shockingly good given this film's relative anonymity.)

This isn't THE THIRD MAN or ODD MAN OUT, but it contains most of the best elements of each movie, plus a better romance than either of those. Interesting that Claire Bloom is forced to watch helplessly as James Mason is shot down at the end of MAN BETWEEN. Only about eight years later she would share the same fate at a similar location on the Berlin border in the searing THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. A heartbreaking must for fans of postwar noir, Mason or Bloom.

A drama involving political intrigue, smuggling, and general malfeasance in the Eastern and Western Zones of Berlin. James Mason is the smooth operator who smuggles such commodities as meat from the West into the needy Stalinist East. Claire Bloom is the innocent who is visiting her brother Geoffrey Toone, a British army officer, and his wife, Hildegarde Knef, who was once married to Mason.

In order to trap a Western operative, the villains extraordinarily extradite Claire Bloom and hole her up in an East Berlin dump. She is rescued by Mason for selfish reasons. He's trying to flee to the West himself, with a good deed on his record, so that when he surrenders to the police they'll go easier on him. Mason and Bloom are pursued in a suspenseful chase through the Eastern Zone. By this time Bloom has fallen for Mason, despite his warnings about his own character and deeds, and they wind up spending the night together. The next day they make a break for the border. Bloom makes it. In an act of self sacrifice, Mason does not.

The first thing I thought of, after missing the credits, was that the writers and director had surely seen "The Third Man" and learned from it. The plot is similar. And the director tilts his camera at the same angles and at the same times as in the original, and there are close ups of suspicious faces observing events out of the sides of their eyes. It was therefore no surprise to find that Carol Reed had directed both films.

The location shooting is just fine, as is the photography by Desmond Dickenson. Mid-winter in a starving and rubble-strewn East Berlin. Everything burdened with a heavy snow blanket except the streets that are glazed with ice. Brrr.

It's a good movie. The characters are well written. We're on one side, rather than the other, but the principal character is properly ambiguous. A plot for grown ups. Mason looks the part but he's simply not very good at a German accent. He was an embarrassment in another film as Irwin Rommel. And his death struck me as melodramatic. Claire Bloom, in only her fourth movie, does splendidly as the naive but righteous English girl. She's beautiful too, in a classic way. Her smile lights up the screen and makes her piercing black eyes almost disappear for a moment. Hildegarde Knef is equally attractive and just as good an actress but in a very different way. Her appearance, as well as her performance, suggests a good deal of experience and knowingness.

It's not "The Third Man" though. (So few films can clear THAT bar.) And Carol Reed entered a slow decline after this, for some reason, winding up with the abysmal "The Public Eye" in the early 1970s. Yet his talent shows through all the murky shadows on the screen and we find ourselves enjoying a taut and exciting story, well worth seeing.

Following the release of his masterpiece 'The Third Man (1949),' a refreshingly-offbeat amalgam of British noir and Ealing-style whimsy, director Carol Reed was heralded as one of the era's most promising filmmakers. Critical admirers anxiously awaited his follow-up effort, which was four years coming. Today, the consensus appears to regard 'The Man Between (1953)' as little but a pale imitation of 'The Third Man.' Certainly, the two films share similar scenarios, both involving a foreigner's espionage-tinged visit to a war-torn city (Vienna and Berlin, respectively) that has been divided by opposing powers. However, despite lacking Graham Greene's wry sense of humour, and particularly the boyish charisma of Orson Welles, Reed's follow-up picture is nonetheless an excellent drama, blending romance and tragedy with the director's usual flair for generating atmosphere and international intrigue. The fine chemistry between stars James Mason and Claire Bloom finds a life of its own amid the rubble-strewn ruins of a city still at war with itself.

Young British woman Susanne Mallison (Claire Bloom, whom Chaplin had discovered the previous year for 'Limelight (1952)') arrives in Berlin to visit her brother (Geoffrey Toone), who has married German-born Bettina (Hildegard Knef). Through her sister-in-law, Susanne is introduced to the enigmatic Ivo Kern (James Mason), a professional kidnapper with ambiguous allegiances towards both the Eastern and Western powers. Screenwriter Harry Kurnitz had a talent for illustrating characters with hidden motives and concealed secrets (see 'Witness for the Prosecution (1957),' 'The Web (1947)' or either of his 'Thin Man' features), and his screenplay spends its first half ominously exploring the intentions of Bettina, whose association with Ivo implicitly suggests a family betrayal. Interestingly, the character is effectively abandoned in the film's second half, but to the film's advantage, as Susanne and Ivo are relentlessly hunted in the Eastern Bloc following a botched kidnapping. Here, Reed narrows his dramatic focus, but the doomed romance between Bloom's young idealist and Mason's war-weary criminal remains appropriately understated, inspiring empathy without stooping to melodrama.

Despite the absence of Robert Krasker, 'The Man Between' is a beautifully shot film, with director-of-photography Desmond Dickinson capturing, not only the atmosphere, but the foreboding personality of the crumbling German capital. John Addison's musical score is haunting and graceful, certainly a far cry from Anton Karas' zither, but nonetheless effective in its own right. One thing I've noticed about every Carol Reed film I've seen (and the tally currently sits at seven) is that all the performances are perfect – not only the main and supporting stars, but everybody down to the briefest of speaking roles. James Mason sports a convincing German accent, and Claire Bloom is simply adorable in her naive innocence, with a smile that will melt your heart. A particularly important character is young Horst (Dieter Krause), whose love Ivo instinctively rejects, for such a criminal can never allow himself to form attachments to those he must inevitably abandon. Ultimately, and tragically, it is Horst's devotion that results in Ivo's death, the final proof that love and death are never far apart.

Carol Reed's lesser-known "sequel" to his "The Third Man" is a

classic retrospective on the divided city of Berlin in the early days of the Cold War. It is a sequel in atmosphere not story, and is less gimmicky and more human than the film from Vienna.

But the same fear and betrayal are palpable in the air, as Ivo Kerr, a shop-soiled but decent dealer with both sides is compelled by his fondness for a naive English school teacher to pass through the Brandenburg Gate "just one more time." The ending, as expected, is not happy, but that final image in the snow will never be forgotten.

When it comes to "rubble pictures," you got me at the first sight of devastation and lost souls in the late 40s/early 50s.

But there's got to be SOME believability. After the first ten minutes lets us know that her sister-in-law's world is filled with trouble, we're then supposed to believe that the lovely Claire Bloom is going to fall for this (very) shady James Mason character? She may be a young Englishwoman, but she lived through the war too -- her naivety simply doesn't wash. Is it that she believes she's taking him off her sister-in-law's hands? I don't buy it.

Mason is always good. And like I said, there are those of us who can hardly resist a story set in bombed-out Berlin. But with this unlikely plot, resist we can.