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.

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!

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.

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 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.

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!