Torn Curtain
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Movie Reviews of Torn Curtain
Movie Review: YES IT'S HITCHCOCK! BUT A FAR CRY FROM HIS BEST!
Summary: 3 Stars
It's very hard to put down any movie by a director that has done so much for the industry as Alfred Hitchcock has. 'Torn Curtain' has all the ingredients to make a great film, but it fails, at least to the point that it is not one of his best films! It's a good movie that could have used some help in the editing room. It's got a great cast, but Newman and Andrews seem out of place in this sometimes tedious yarn of espionage. Although the one murder scene seems awkward I applaud "Hitch" for making a realistic murder scene where ordinary people are forced to kill someone and they might not do it in a efficient manner.
The DVD I watched in from the Box set and it has a nice crisp DVD transfer and audio. The features are interesting and well worth a look.
Movie Review: "It takes a scientist to pick a scientist's mind"
Summary: 3 Stars
"Torn Curtain" (1966) is a good Hitchcock movie, it just isn't an excellent one. From my point of view, this film is entertaining, but not something you will remember after watching it.
The main character is Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman), an American scientist that defects to East Germany, to the despair of his fiancée and assistant, Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews), who decides to follow him. However, things are not what they seem, as the spectator will realize soon enough.
Is "Torn curtain" a movie you should watch? Yes, if you are a serious Hitchcock fan, or have nothing better to do with your time. Personally, I liked it, but not a lot, and I am in no rush to watch it again.
Belen Alcat
Movie Review: 1966 Hitchcock Film.
Summary: 3 Stars
Not one of Paul Newman's best films. Julie Andrews didn't really add to the film much. So, this wasn't one of Hitchcock's best films, but it did contain some good scenes, depicting suspenseful moments, which is what Hitchcock is well known for. There might also have been problems with the two actors getting along, or working with Hitchcock.Movie Review: " EAST BERLIN !! Why, that's behind the Iron Curtain ! "
Summary: 3 Stars
i have to say, i like this movie. not his best, awkward casting, a bad hairdo for the lead actress, a few dropped balls in the plot and logistics department--but still the basic spy story/plan is solid and was certainly one that was utilized during the era--, but still it's good of its kind. worth seeing, with some good set pieces.Movie Review: Paul Newman is always great, but...
Summary: 2 Stars
Torn Curtain has many Hitchcock associates not involved with this fiolm, and it shows. The Bernard Hermann score is not here, the Robert Burks cinematography is not here, and the casting is not very good.
Julie Andrews is Mary Poppins, a governess, and Maria Von Trapp, a governess, or a one dimensional secretary in Throughly Modern Millie. She is not Grace Kelly or Kim Novak or Janet Leigh, great stars and great artists. Paul Newman, a great actor, struggles with Andrews' monotone deliveries, and it seems as though Hitchcock has given up on the film less than half way through, as set pieces with no drive accumulate.
For example: There are many scenes with Julie and Paul eating, in a theatre staring, waiting for the next thing to occur. It's flat in these scenes and Paul Newman becomes more and more inaccsessible to us as Julie Andrews almost fades away. Paul did this sort of backing away in Exodus and in The Silver Chalice. He just cannot deal with low end talents, and so shuts down.
The best scene is the killing of a person in a kitchen. Very good Hitchcock and very good Newman. Andrews is not there, fortunately.
Lila Kedrova drops in for a long cafe scene, describing at great length her need for a Spnsor to go to the great USA, followed by a long speech on the awful quality of Soviet cigarettes. Newman and Andrews stare at her, and Julie manages a smile and a tentative offer of assistance. Kedrova then takes Paul and Julie to the Post Office , and here we have a long Q and no A scene that goes on and on; not Hitchockian at all; he would have edited this for speed and suspense. It's boring, but again, as some have said, interesting in terms of waiting for inefficient communist systems to work. However, we are far from Psycho or Vertigo or Frenzy with respect to artful suspense.
Indeed, count the number of scenes in restaurants and airports and class rooms and bed rooms, and post offices and street scenes, where Paul and Julie are without dialogue and we are caught up in dull, local matters, as we wait for them to act.
Suspense? This film has about as much suspense as a bus 'ticket round trip.
But, maybe a ticket does have suspense, however, not here.
Note well too, Julie's wardrobe, and her beautiful hair and manicures. This is not East Germany, or even West Germany.
And too, note the excellent camera work in the classroom scene with Paul and that out of control professor of Rocket science. What is happening?
So, there are things, but go back to Marnie even, or The Birds, definately, and of course Psycho.. the credits of Psycho alone, with the old crew on board, the great scripts, the non stop deliberate set pieces that turn into hair raising suspense and , as in Psycho, leave one breathless, anxious for more, and yet dreading it. Note too, drawn out sces as in Torn Curtain, but witjh great differfences: the mezmerizing artistic handling by Hitchcock in the interrogation in Vertigo with all that color and scenery, including discreet, disturbing shots of the fatal tower where Madeleine falls to her death. And in the same scene Henry Jones tearing James Stewart to shreds as an incompetent detective, and Stewart's face, ready to take Jones up the tower(we can imagine) and give him a needed push. The monologue of Jones, almost insane at times in his obvious hatred of Stewart. And then, when all is over and the other detective is trying to get Stewart to leave, we have the museum interposition with the portrait of Madeleine Valdez, and Novak's necklace in the painting. A long scene, but the dynamics and the interplays between Stewart and Jones and the assistant cop are startling. Brillance on so many levels. Torn Curtain has none of this beacuse Hitchcock cannot teach Andrews how to act (noone can), and he cannot get Paul Newman out of that shut down coma he's in, and, Hitchcock does not have his old crew oir any kind of a dramatic script.
BUT, There isn't a
film like Torn Curtain anywhere; it's so camp and crazy and badly acted by Andrews, and you can't stop watching. So, I am doublinbg back, but I am not describiong the brilliance of Vertigo.