User reviews

There is nothing like a puzzling thriller on a rattly train, and there have been many successful ones including NARROW MARGIN (1952) and NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) . Prior to these and after the Hitchcock Brit ones of the 30s is this terrific Jacques Tourneur RKO surprise package BERLIN EXPRESS. Filmed in the rubble of German cities in 1946 this film, basically is a very good and constantly weaving espionage drama; and not unlike NORTH BY NORTHWEST in deception, missing persons, terrific set pieces in ruins and epic visuals of genuine locations. Robert Ryan as the US everyman, all casual but tough, Merle Oberon gives ze Fronnch occent a good go, and a solid cast enjoying a provocative script . I especially liked the Russian soldier Roman Toporov and his witty snarls. BERLIN EXPRESS also explores the unusual brief reality of Nazi resistance to the US victory over Germany, and offers some really intriguing plot devices (a clown in a cabaret) some identity swapping and a fantastic shootout in a ruined brewery. There are quite a few gasp-out-loud moments. Did Jacques Tourneur ever make a dud? I actually do not think so. The only annoyance to modern audiences are the obvious studio process shots where characters have dialogue before a projected background screen. I suggest you catch the BERLIN EXPRESS next time it is scheduled.

This film is about the only one I can recall that deals with the anti-West resistance that the US and its allies received from the conquered Germans after WWII. Apart from this movie, you'd think that ALL the Germans easily adapted to their new rule, while in reality there were murders and scattered resistance for several years in an effort by ex-Nazis to destabilize the peace. For historical reasons alone, it is an important movie. Robert Ryan plays our hero who finds out about a Nazi murder plot and, with the help of a multinational team, he goes to action. I think that having help from the Russians, French and British is interesting, but highly improbable and seemed like a bit of a cliché, but nevertheless it's a great film and well wroth seeing.

I saw this movie recently on TCM and liked it. I thought the plot was good, as was the acting. I couldn't believe that the secretary was Merle Oberon, I hardly recognized her, and I think that is a testament to how good an acting job she did. Some of the lines seemed stilted and staged, particularly toward the end, but given the time period when the movie was filmed, not at all surprising. There was a good mix of characters, but the real star of the film is the location: there are wonderful shots of Berlin and Frankfurt right after the war, and the devastation around the characters adds a powerful unspoken dimension to the film.

For anyone who enjoyed this movie, I would also highly recommend "Decision Before Dawn," also filmed on location in postwar Europe, which starred Richard Basehart, Oskar Werner and a whole host of other fabulous character actors, including Hildegard Kneff.

It is irksome, but neither Berlin Express nor Decision Before Dawn seem to be available on Video or DVD, which is a real shame. So, watch your TV listings for these two.

I've only seen this movie once but what differentiates it for me is not the story, the actors, or the director, but rather the footage of post WWII Frankfurt Germany and the devastation wrought by the war.

In addition to the general post-war, pre-Cold War footage, the most fascinating thing is the film shot inside the I.G. Farben builting. This building is famous among architects and has a unique interior, shown in the film. This building was also the "Abrams Building" during the time the U.S. military occupied it during the Cold War and anyone who was in Frankfurt in the 1970's or 1980's might recognise it as unchanged inside from the time the movie was made to the time one served in the Army. This film is rare because that was a secure building during much of the Cold War. Today I believe the Army has left the building and it is occupied by a school or college.

Lots of history in this movie. I wish it was available on DVD.

On a surface level this is a kind of benevolent THIRD MAN, as a group of international comrades, most prominently a naive American, try to root out sinister Germans and a betraying friend in the rubbles of post-war Europe. The script is a model of civic decency, as it dramatises the lingering dangers facing Europe after the war, but offering a narrative of co-operation and hope.

Director Tourneur, however, had only just directed the beautifully bleak OUT OF THE PAST, and this film is full of a blackness overwhelming good intentions, where the frightening contingencies of history and inexplicable darkness of man are not so easily swept aside. His mastery of space and lighting, his disturbing compositions and vigorous editing are an eternal pleasure not to be enjoyed again until Scorcese's glory days.

This movie is most notable as a historical document giving a glimpse of Germany after the war. The location shots in bombed out Frankfurt and Berlin are rather startling, and it's interesting to see the hatred and mistrust everyone has for the Germans. The movie is shot very well and the early scenes are excellent.

Unfortunately the script is weak. Towards the end I realized that I just wasn't clear on why things were happening as they were. It felt like the plot was just a backdrop to the ambiance, which was fine in the beginning but became a problem as the plot moved its wobbly self to center stage. I can't entirely blame the script though; I think Tourneur's greatest failing as a director is that while he had a lot of style and could always make things interesting, he could be sloppy in terms of telling a story. Of course he wasn't the only director who believed you could gloss over a lot if you just kept things moving, but that works better with a good muddled script like The Big Sleep rather than the distinctly ordinary but muddled script he worked with here. Still worth seeing though.

BERLIN EXPRESS is a post-war thriller directed to the hilt by Jacques Tourneur, who adds plenty of icy atmosphere to the production. It also has one of the best locations I've seen in a film: the real-life bombed-out ruins of Frankfurt, which provide a fitting backdrop to a tale of intrigue, scandal, and murder.

Much of the film is set on a train, as various characters interact and attempt to do battle with some Nazis who don't let the small matter of losing the war stop them. When a leading scientist is kidnapped, it takes an American investigator to track down the criminal gang and exact some justice.

Cast-wise, this is a film that benefits from some seasoned performers like Robert Ryan and Paul Lukas in key roles, but really it's a story where the cinematography wins out. There are some expertly-directed set-pieces here, particularly the climactic stuff in the bombed-out brewery, alongside plenty of the good stuff - i.e. suspense and a sense of danger - that you expect from a thriller. Check it out.

I always think that it is a good idea to make a thriller/ mystery story even when one is trying to show something that has nothing to do with that. In "The Berlin Express" we are shown post-war Germany, the consequences of 2nd World War. First the film can look as a triumphant look of the winner of the war towards the wreckage it left behind. Such sentences as "here justice arranged it so that the punishment were equal to the crime" (I'm not sure if the quote is correct, but the idea is) might corroborate that first impression. However it is possible that all is meant as great irony.

The film is good. It isn't great though - just compare it with Reed's "The Third Man" and you'll see the difference between a master piece, a work of a superb team, and a reasonably well-made picture. However one mustn't forget that "reasonably well-made" pictures aren't so easy to do, and thus "The Berlin Express" seems to me to be a good movie.

Earlier today I posted a negative review of SPY TRAIN, a WWII-era thriller flop about Nazi spies on a train, all done by the numbers, and not very well.

Thank heaven for BERLIN EXPRESS, which is a potent antidote to formulaic war thrillers. Here the "McGuffin" is the need to deliver Dr. Bernhardt safely to a conference in Berlin, where he has a wonderful plan for reuniting Germany. But of course, there are sinister forces at work to prevent him from arriving.

Bernhardt's secretary, Lucienne (Oberon) is on a train with her boss and several good-looking male passengers who represent the four Allied powers. An intercepted message has warned of danger, but no one knows what to expect. Danger does indeed strike, and when the train arrives in Frankfurt, things become decidedly worse. There's a kidnapping, a hanging, a gun-toting clown, and plenty of awe-inspiring shots of bombed-out Frankfurt (much like the Vienna of THIRD MAN). Bits of humor lighten up a taut, well-written script.

What makes this film better than dreck like SPY TRAIN is its sense of reality, which is cemented by good characters and embellished by the very real locations. Shot in Paris, Frankfurt, and a shelled Berlin, it plays like something from post-war headlines. (The running narration, which is not obtrusive, lends the sense of a documentary.) The only sour note is a saccharine ending, in which the characters from each country exit the screen to the sounds of national theme songs. But that's not enough to spoil a very engaging thriller. It's great for war movie fans, and for students of history who want a look at the aftermath of WWII.

Heretical though it may be, I prefer this movie to The Third Man; good though the latter film is, it can't possibly live up to the reputation that has accrued around it over the years. Both are poignant -- even shocking -- glimpses into the shambles that was post-war Europe (though neither can compare, for realism, with, say, Rossellini's Open City). The brutal "assassination" comes swiftly and without warning, and if the intrigue seems a little tired, the actual locales in Frankfurt and Berlin have a timeless documentary force. Robert Ryan isn't as effective as he was playing edgy, unbalanced protagonists, and Merle Oberon seems just plain wrong as a secretary (she's more of an aristocrat-fallen-on-bad-times). But the action sequences on the train recall some of the best such movies (The Lady Vanishes, The Narrow Margin -- the Charles McGraw/Marie Windsor version). All in all, a worthy little thriller from Jacques Tourneur, director of the masterpieces The Cat People and Out of the Past.

Set in a post WW-2 Germany, "Berlin Express" is a quite interesting thriller directed by Jacques Tourneur. The story is basically about a group of people each of whom representing Russian, French, American and British forces who are united in trying to solve an assassination attempt made by Nazi underground group on a Professor Bernhardt, one of the former liders of German Resistance to Nazis and now a chairman of a commission for post-war unification of Germany.

"Berlin Express" is particularly interesting for it's exteriors shot in 1947 on real locations with special permission from Allied forces, showing destroyed by bombings Frankfurt and Berlin. 7/10

Robert Ryan gets on the train for Berlin and finds himself caught up in a world of bad international relationships, spying, kidnapping, and Merle Oberon in a hat with a big feather.

The title suggests one of those train thrillers, and there's certain amount of that, but people look out the windows, and get out a couple of times, particularly when Paul Lukas is reported killed, or Miss Oberon is kidnapped. In the main, however, it turns into a message film: we must cooperate, we must have peace, or everything will wind up looking like the ruins of of Frankfurt and Berlin.

There's some nice shots of the interior of the IG Farben offices in Frankfurt, with the paternoster elevators running. They're still there, and the building is part of the University of Frankfurt. With Robert Coote and Reinhold Schünzel.

In postwar Paris, a pigeon is shot by someone unknown. A housewife finds a secret German message on the bird. She brings it to the police and it rises up the chain of command. All the allies are notified but nobody is able to figure out the message. Meanwhile, various international passengers board a train to Frankfurt on their way to Berlin. Dr. Bernhardt is advocating for the peaceful reunification of his German homeland and gets blown up in his compartment. The passengers are brought to a US Army base for questioning.

This is a stylized noir. The most striking aspect is the vista of the bombed out Germany. The main plot is akin to an international whodunnit and what did they do. It does get a bit random as the group search for Bernhardt in the ruins of the city. I don't see how they get anywhere as they randomly find a posting on a wall. They need to be following better clues. I do like some of comedy at the expense of the Russian. Mostly, it's a fine noir.

Like a previous reviewer, I, too, was born in Frankfurt shortly after the war. Those rubble heaps were our playgrounds. More than once an old bomb or artillery shell exploded and killed or injured someone. I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the States some years later. After joining the army I wound up back in Frankfurt and occasionally rode the nonstop elevators in the I.G. Farben building like several of the characters. This is the first time I've seen this movie and it gave me goosebumps several times. Other than that that, the only things it has going for it are fine acting, evocative scenery, impressive cinematography and a powerful sense of history and the endless repeating thereof. Highly recommended.

This is a Strange One. The Film Exists in that Short-Lived Netherland between the End of WWII and the Solidification of the Cold War and the USSR as our Eternal Enemy (at least for Decades). There is an Attempt to try and Pose this Thriller in the Bombed-Out Remains of Germany and it is Very Effective in its use of Real On Location Footage.

It can be a Heavy Handed Affair at times with its Didactic Narration and Muddled Script. The Movie is Forever Stylistic in the way the Director Frames the Intrigue and it is a Visual Treat most of the Time.

But where the Movie Fails is its Ability to make Very Clear what is going on most of the Time and there are Events that seem Glossed Over and Rushed. The Whole Effort Works more than it Doesn't and as Entertainment it is just Fine.

Add to that the Informative Cityscape that says much without Words and can be a Breathtaking Experience. This was most Likely the First Glimpse of the Devastation and Destruction that was allowed into the General Public Consciousness. They must have Thought that Three Years After was Long Enough.

Berlin Express (1948)

Just after WWII has ended comes this film about getting inside the post-Nazi world for an assassination. It's multi-national and filled with bitter scenes of German ruin.

This actually is an amazing film, starting off (and ending) as beautiful and dramatic. And it's complex but luckily edited with precision. It's filmed with remarkable realism in post-war German (Frankfurt and Berlin), with trains and train stations and lots of darkness and steam and drama. (Later there are huge areas of utter utter devastation.) The first half hour has a stunning film-noir style, lots of angles, deep shadows, moving camera, and so on, all under the hand of master cinematographer Lucien Ballard. It's great to just watch.

It's also a rare imperfect glimpse of what it might actually be like in that era where Germany was an occupied territory. It's almost shocking, even now, or maybe especially now since we have seldom seen anything remotely this vast and awful in a long time. That really is the depth of the movie that was intended and effective.

The plot (trying to save a German diplomat who is out for a peaceful future) you might call a device, and it is the weakness of it all, even though they place much of the best of it on a train where the drama is classic train stuff, car to car. There is also a lot of narration, explaining (rather well, but still having to explain) what is going on. Robert Ryan plays the leading man, an American agriculture expert out to help recovery in Europe.

There is also the expected stereotyping—the casual smart American, the principled and arrogant Soviet, the suspicious and duplicitous Germans, the interested but somewhat victimized French, and the humorous and unflappable Brit. I'm serious—it's here, and it's done well enough you can easily buy into it. Merle Oberon is restrained but wonderful.

Director Jacques Tourneau is always interesting and often compromised ("Out of the Past" is interesting and very uncompromised, for sure.) This movie has so many shifts and complications it is hard to know what they all mean, and this makes it all the more interesting, even as the narration deadens our absorption into events. I admit to liking every minute of it, even the bureaucratic office scenes (which had their own slight believability). By the end, as they all say goodbye and drive in separate directions, the truth of divided Germany was clear—even in 1948.

The very last scene shows a man with one leg and crutches moving through some partly destroyed columns—very symbolic and right on.

First-rate noir, one of many to unfold within the ominous mood of war-torn Europe (with the standard of such fare being set by next year's THE THIRD MAN). It is also one of several emanating from this era to follow a documentary-style pattern – which, however, renders it heavy-going in this case and is ultimately what dates it most of all. The title ranks it besides among a number of espionage thrillers set aboard a train; again, the template for these is THE LADY VANISHES (1938), with which this even shares one of its actors (Paul Lukas, still traveling incognito but now being the abducted party rather than the one doing the kidnapping!).

Having mentioned Hitchcock's film, this is yet another effort by director Tourneur in that tradition (incidentally, he followed it with the recently-viewed CIRCLE OF DANGER [1951] and NIGHT OF THE DEMON [1957], co-scripted by Hitchcock regular Charles Bennett). In fact, the plot basically resolves itself in a handful of striking suspense sequences: an explosion in a train compartment; a kidnapping at a busy train station; a 39 STEPS-like 'memory test' in a club; a showdown in an abandoned brewery; and a near-strangling during yet another train journey ingeniously reflected in the glass of a parallel sleeping-car.

The rest of the cosmopolitan cast includes American Robert Ryan (by now growing nicely as a leading man), 'French' Merle Oberon (amusingly, she confounds her fellow passengers by alternating between languages when they initially try 'hitting' on her; even if lovingly photographed by cinematographer husband Lucien Ballard, she is perhaps over-age to fill the romantic interest spot and is saddled throughout with a silly feathered hat!), Frenchman Charles Korvin (effectively emerging as the real villain of the piece), Briton Robert Coote (usually there to provide comic relief, he plays it reasonably straight in this case) and, in what constitutes a bit part (as a murder victim), German Fritz Kortner; conversely, future genre stalwart Charles McGraw's not negligible role as a high-ranking U.S. military officer is bafflingly unbilled!

This movie is interesting because it shows the effect of the terrible bombings by the allies on cities crowded with civilians: especially Frankfurt and Berlin. It was made on location in 1947 and therefore a testimony of the ruins. It was only released in Germay 8 years later. Professor Bernhardt is handled with a surprising respect by the American officers during the investigations. Robert Ryan as Robert Lindley seems to be more accurate. Jacques Tourneur develops the thriller with skill.