Torn Curtain (DVD)

Torn Curtain is an Alfred Hitchcock produced and directed film released in 1966 which starred Paul Newman and Julie Andrews as Professor Michael Armstrong and his assistant/fiancé Sarah Sherman with support from Wolfgang Kieling, Lila Kedrova, Hansjorg Felmy, Ludwig Donath, Carolyn Conwell, Gisela Fischer and Gunter Strack.


Professor Armstrong is engaged to his assistant Sarah Sherman and the films starts off with them on board ...
...his usual acting prowess in Torn Curtain.

I did feel that the plot had some glaring holes in it from start to finish. I didn't understand the significance of Professor Manfred going with Sarah to the bookshop to collect the Professor's book as he doesn't even look at the book or try to. Whilst watching a Hitchcock film, one tries to find hidden meaning in so many scenes and strangely enough there just weren't many hidden meanings ... more

Torn Curtain is an Alfred Hitchcock produced and directed film released in 1966 which starred Paul Newman and Julie Andrews as Professor Michael Armstrong and his assistant/fiancé Sarah Sherman with support from Wolfgang Kieling, Lila Kedrova, Hansjorg Felmy, Ludwig Donath, Carolyn Conwell, Gisela Fischer and Gunter Strack.

Professor Armstrong is engaged to his assistant Sarah Sherman and the films starts off with them on board a ship to Copenhagen where Armstrong is due to give a presentation. Whilst in Copenhagen Sarah finds Michael acting suspiciously and discovers that he has bought a plane ticket to East Germany and she gets on the same flight to join him without his knowledge only to arrive at their destination and find out that he had defected to Eastern Europe. She is horrified and feels he is a traitor but she decides to stay with him as she loves him so much. It soon becomes apparent that he is only pretending to be a defector to get some essential information from a German scientist which he has been unable to work out himself.

Once it becomes apparent that he is playing the Germans, it becomes a cat and mouse game of Armstrong and his fiancé on the run trying to avoid being caught at all costs. Does the professor get the info that he's risking his life for? Do they manage to get out of the country alive? You'll have to watch this Hitchcock thriller to see!

I'm a great fan of all things Hitchcock and had had this film in my collection for some time before I got around to watching it. There was no particular reason for this apart from not getting around to it. I had not read anything about the film prior to watching it so had no idea who was in it or how good or bad it was.

Firstly I can honestly say I wasn't impressed with the chemistry (or lack of it) between the two leads. I do rate Paul Newman as an actor and I've always liked Julie Andrews' work in other films I've seen her in. I just don't feel either of them were suited to the type of roles they were given in this film. Can you buy Newman as a scientist? Well I didn't. I didn't buy him as a spy either and I didn't feel he pulled off either of those to any really great effect. Julie Andrews as his love struck fiancé was definitely not at her best in this film. At the very start of the film we see Newman and Andrews in bed together being romantic about their futures together, yet Newman at this stage already knows he's going to be disappearing off behind the Iron Curtain within a few days without her, so his behaviour with her in the initial scenes didn't make sense.

Andrews' character is not supposed to be a rocket scientist but it's really very annoying that the viewer can tell that Newman is not a traitor but she doesn't get it until he spells it out for her and that's about halfway into the film! Her character really came across as a silly woman in love who will do anything for her man even betray her country and even that she can't go through with. Don't watch this film if you adore Andrews generally, her role is very secondary in the film and she really plays second fiddle throughout the whole film to Newman's professor.

There are quite a few supporting actors in the film but none of them really appear long enough for me to bother analysing their characters too much. I found Wolfgang Kieling who played the character of Gromek, who is supposed to be Professor Armstrong's personal bodyguard, quite amusing, especially when he keeps making references to his time in USA, even down to asking if the Professor knows of the pizza place where he used to eat. Carolyn Conwell, who plays the farmer's wife who helps the Professor kill someone to save their own lives was a surprising character who initially seems very weak but she really comes through and portrays a strong female as well as Gisela Fischer who plays Dr Koska whose first meeting with the Professor involves her tripping him down the stairs causing him to get bruised ribs! It was a bit of an over the top manner to instigate a meeting but we soon see why...

I felt the Professor's assistant and fiancé could have been given a stronger role to play but sadly Hitchcock's film called for Julie Andrews to play quite a weak role, which is a shame as she really didn't get a chance to show his usual acting prowess in Torn Curtain.

I did feel that the plot had some glaring holes in it from start to finish. I didn't understand the significance of Professor Manfred going with Sarah to the bookshop to collect the Professor's book as he doesn't even look at the book or try to. Whilst watching a Hitchcock film, one tries to find hidden meaning in so many scenes and strangely enough there just weren't many hidden meanings in Torn Curtain. What you saw was what you got generally apart from Sarah being rather slow at working out that the Professor was not really a defector! Even the fact that Sarah manages to get on the same flight as her man is not noticed by anyone until they've already taken off and even then nothing much is made of it! The significance of the famous ballerina on the same flight is not made clear - in fact, we don't even know that she is a ballerina at this stage, we just see a snooty woman looking very annoyed that the press are not there to take HER photos! The relevance of Countess Kuchinska's appearance only seemed to be there to draw the film out to make it a bit longer too.

This particular Hitchcock film was the first time Hitchcock used John Addison to do the music score for the film, instead of the usual Bernard Herrmann (whom he apparently fell out with during the making of the film and never worked with again)! Personally speaking I didn't find this an issue but it could possibly be why there didn't seem to be such a build up of tension in scenes where it was necessary due to the background music not being as powerful…

I have to add that there are quite a few scenes where English is not used (instead German or several European languages) and no subtitles are provided, I'm not sure if this was to give the added effect of mystery and suspense but I found it somewhat frustrating!

All in all, I did not feel that this was one of Hitchcock's better films, which was strange considering it was his 50th film and next one after Marnie (which was apparently a bit of a box office flop but which I personally enjoyed). I found my mind struggling to keep interested in the film and even to stick to it until the end which very rarely happens when I have watch Hitchcock films (if at all). I have to admit that I didn't even spot Hitchcock himself in his usual cameo at the start of the film and when I looked it up on the net as to which scene his cameo appearance was in - I couldn't even be bothered to watch that part again as I would normally do!

Overall not a bad film, but definitely not up there with the best of (or even mediocre) Hitchcock's thrillers. I'd give the film a weak 4 out of 10 and probably wouldn't watch it again.

You can pick up the film on DVD from Amazon for £4.97 or for £7.99 from Play.com or try your usual DVD rental source. 

...less