Torn Curtain

1966
PG
2h 8m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Alfred Hitchcock, Paul Newman, and Julie Andrews in Torn Curtain (1966)

An American scientist publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to steal a formula before planning an escape back to the West.An American scientist publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to steal a formula before planning an escape back to the West.An American scientist publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to steal a formula before planning an escape back to the West.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

30K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 nominations total

Trivia
In a conversation with François Truffaut, Sir Alfred Hitchcock said that he included the fight scene deliberately to show the audience how difficult it can be to kill a man, because several spy thrillers at the time made killing look effortless.

Goofs
In East Berlin there are several Volkswagen Käfer / Beetle on the street which is a west German car and definitely not would have been found in east Berlin. The car which they took from the airport to the hotel is a Mercedes Benz, a west German car as well.

Quotes
Professor Michael Armstrong: Just give me five minutes with her. After all, she is my girl.
Sarah Sherman: Put that in the past tense.

Alternate versions
In the original version, various German dialogues are translated to English (i.e. at the airport). In the German version, these translations were removed. Additionally, letters written in English were replaced with letters written in German.

Connections
Edited into Earthquake (1974)

Soundtracks
Torn Curtain (Main Title)
(uncredited)
Written by John Addison

User reviews204

Review

Featured review

Those 'in the know' ....

... have 'know' idea what they're talking about. It may not be Hitch's best movie, but 'watch at your own risk' is an utterly ridiculous appraisal of this movie. But yes, when discussing a Hitch movie, all the normal conventions of movie analysis fly straight out of the window; now it's time to take out the REALLY big magnifying glass. The nitpicking borders on the outrageous. The story is actually quite enjoyable, no more implausible than that of many of his other films, and contains the usual Hitchcockian set pieces and camera work. Whats not to love? Ya, Newman doesnt exactly carry around Jack Nicholson-like expressiveness; there may have been better actors up to the task, and the Old Woman scene feels strange and out of place not to mention over-acted, but even these cant bring the movie as a whole down. Seems like for years this film has the unlucky honor of being the scapegoat in the Hitchcock stable...unfortuanate, really. If you haven't already, see it for yourself, you wont be disappointed