The Man Between

In the Post-World War II, the British Susanne Mallison (Claire Bloom) travels to Berlin to visit her older brother Martin Mallison (Geoffrey Toone), a military that has married the German Bettina Mallison (Hildegarde Neff). The naive Susanne snoops on Bettina and suspects that she is hiding a secret from her brother.

When Susanne meets Bettina with her friend Ivo Kern (James Mason), he offers to show Berlin to her and they date. But Ivo meets the strange Halendar (Aribert Waescher) from the East Germany and Susanne takes a cab and return to her home alone. Then she dates Ivo again and he meets Olaf Kastner (Ernst Schroeder), who is a friend of Martin and Bettina. But soon Susanne, who has fallen in love with Ivo, learns that he was a former attorney married to Bettina in East Germany but with a criminal past during the war. Now he is blackmailed by Halendar to kidnap Kastner and bring him back to the other side of the border. The plan fails and Halender asks his men to abduct Bettina to get Kastner. However, Susanne is kidnapped by mistake and is imprisoned in the basement of a house in East Berlin. Now Ivo plots a plan to rescue Susanne from Halender and help her to cross the border. Will they succeed in their intent?

"The Man Between" is another wonderful classic by Carol Reed with suspense and romance in the post-war Berlin totally destroyed, in the same environment of Rossellini's "Germania Anno Zero" or Billy Wilder's "A Foreign Affair". James Mason has another top-notch performance in the role of Ivo Kern, a cynical man that changes his behavior when he meets the naive and charming character performed by Claire Bloom. Their chemistry is fantastic and Hildegarde Neff is a very beautiful woman. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Outro Homem" ("The Other Man")

I wasn't sure if I'd like this film or not. Its British and it stars James Mason and Claire Bloom. So far so good, but its a "spy" drama which I sometimes find tedious. What a surprise! Beautifully filmed amid the bombed out rubble of post war Berlin, Mason and Bloom really shine here. This was an amazing pairing of two excellent actors. Mr Mason, as always, gives an first rate performance. What a pleasure to see him on ice skates. Bloom is lovely as the Englishwoman visiting her brother in Germany and drawn into a tense cat and mouse game where no one can be fully trusted.

Definitely a must see for Mason fans but I think good for anyone who enjoys top-notch drama well acted and directed.

James Mason is "The Man Between" in this 1953 Carol Reed film, shot on location in post-war Berlin. The film also stars Claire Bloom and Hildegarde Neff. Bloom plays Susanne, a young American woman who comes to Berlin to visit her brother Martin. Martin is stationed there and married to Bettina (Neff). Bettina is clearly unhappy about something, and Susanne soon realizes that her discomfiture has to do with a mysterious man, Iwo (Mason), described as an old friend. When Iwo offers to show her the sights, Susanne accepts, and, believing him to be having an affair with her sister-in-law, advises him to leave her alone. Iwo says he is trying to leave the area, and a friend of Martin's can help by getting him the required documents and introductions. When Susanne asks her brother to help Iwo by contacting the man, Bettina loses her temper, and the truth about Iwo and his true relationship to Bettina emerges.

This is an odd, moody, dark film with some haunting images of the destroyed Berlin, and some beautiful shots, particularly the very last one in the film which stays in one's memory. The serenely beautiful Claire Bloom and the enigmatic Mason are magic together and make this a poignant love story, and very typical Reed - the innocent who has her eyes opened, the man tainted by sin going to meet his fate. The whole last half of the film focuses on only the two of them, and we sense their isolation, an odd couple in a changing world.

The German supporting cast is excellent, particularly Neff, whose career in Hollywood was brief. She wrote a wonderful best-selling autobiography, The Gift Horse, in 1970, which leaves no doubt of her feelings about the place. She went on to star in Silk Stockings on Broadway and eventually returned to Germany.

Quite a beautiful film, not up to "The Third Man," but still has the touch of the master.

James Mason gives a tour-de-force performance as a tired clerk who knows not who to trust. Hildegrade Knef is magnificent in a complex supporting role. Carol Reed has directed some great movies and this is among his best. The ending sequence is so poignant, it always brings tears to the eyes.

Claire Bloom has just arrived in post-war Berlin to vacation with her brother who is in the British Army and his new German wife (played by Hildegard Knef). Knef shows Bloom all about Berlin--both the Allied and the Russian sectors. In the east, the meet James Mason--a mysterious man who soon begins dating Bloom. However, there's obviously much more to the man than this and he and Knef share some secret. Later, through a strange series of events, Bloom is accidentally kidnapped and it's up to dashing Mason to help her sneak back to West Berlin--all the while pursued with Communists bent on their capture.

The film has a look very similar to director Reed's more famous preceding film, THE THIRD MAN--which was shot in post-war Vienna. However, the camera work in THE THIRD MAN was more daring and novel and the Berlin took far worse damage during the war--and the sheer volume of rubble in 1953 is still very significant and adds to the atmosphere.

Overall, while not a great spy film, it is very good and keeps your interest. I would say, overall, that the second half is a bit more exciting than the first. I especially liked the ending, though some might have preferred something a bit more upbeat.

By the way, James Mason seemed to do a fairly good job with speaking German. I could tell he wasn't exactly a native speaker, but he was pretty adept.