SUBWAY IN THE SKY is a very dull British thriller based around illegal drug smuggling in the army. Lame duck actor Van Johnson plays an American major who is falsely accused of being a drug dealer so he decides to go A.W.O.L. in an attempt to clear his name. He hides out in his wife's apartment, little realising that it has already been leased to a German singer who chooses to help him in his quest for justice.
I don't know much about Van Johnson outside of this movie but I can report that his performance here is perfunctory at best. He's hardly the type of hero you can root for or indeed even care about as he feels wooden throughout. Hildegard Knef is much better as the warm-hearted singer who befriends him although the best performance goes to Cec Linder whose character has a Terminator-style unstoppable quality about him in his relentless and incessant hunt for the missing man.
SUBWAY IN THE SKY is one of those movies based on a stage play and it does feel very stage bound and constrained by the single location. It's also incredibly boring, with never a moment of suspense or tension in all those long minutes of running time. I don't wish to knock the talents of director Muriel Box but she doesn't really feel cut out for film on the strength of her work here. The film has a single decent scene, a shockingly explicit moment on a balcony, and that's exactly it.