Dangerous vacation
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Dangerous vacation |
| Original title | The Man Between |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language |
English German |
| Publishing year | 1953 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Carol Reed |
| script |
Harry Kurnitz Eric Linklater |
| production | Carol Reed |
| music | John Addison |
| camera | Desmond Dickinson |
| cut | Bert Bates |
| occupation | |
| |
Dangerous Vacation (Original Title: The Man Between ) is a British spy film shot in black and white from 1953 . Carol Reed directed the film based on the newspaper novel Susanne in Berlin by Walter Ebert for London Film Productions .
action
The British Susanne Mallison visits her brother Martin Mallison in ruined Berlin. Mallison works there in the British sector as a military doctor and lives with his German wife Bettina near the Brandenburg Gate. Bettina picks up Susanne alone from Tempelhof Airport, because her brother is very busy with his work. She shows Susanne some sights of Berlin on the drive to her house. They are followed and observed by a little boy on a bicycle. The former lawyer Ivo Kern, who was involved in various acts of violence under the Nazi regime , works for the communists in Germany after the war . He sells them expert opinions on citizens who are then kidnapped and taken to the Eastern Bloc . Kern would like to go back to the West , but his past prevents him. The little boy who chased the two women informed Kern about their whereabouts when they were sitting in a café in the east sector. Kern makes contact with the women and is introduced by Bettina as an old friend. The core is in the hands of the East German communist Harald Halender, who knows too much about him and would hand this material over to the western departments. Halender tries to get into conversation with Kern when he and Susanne visit a ballroom alone that evening. However, in the presence of Susanne, Kern is not interested in a conversation. Halender is still interested in Olaf Kestner, who in turn smuggles documents and people from East Berlin to the West. Kestner and Martin Mallison know each other and Halender senses a chance to get to Kestner by trying to kidnap Mallison's wife, Bettina. A spicy detail: Kern was married to Bettina until he disappeared in the war; when he was pronounced dead, she had married Mallison. Due to a mix-up, Mallison's sister Susanne is accidentally kidnapped.
Kern wants to bring Susanne back to the West. He is secretly hoping for a way to break away. Despite all adversities, Susanne falls in love with her kidnapper. She believes in the good in the previous human rights lawyer. A boy from East Berlin helps Susanne and Kern try to escape. The boy follows Kern every step of the way and is treated kindly by him.
Kern and Susanne hide on a truck that is supposed to cross the border. However, the car should be searched by the border guards. Kern wants Susanne to stay in the car and thus reach the west. He distracts the guards by jumping off the car and running. The truck crosses the border line. Susanne wants to go back to Kern, who is shot by the guards while escaping.
background
Dangerous Vacation is based on the newspaper novel Susanne in Berlin by Walter Ebert, the head of the justice press office in West Berlin, which he published under the pseudonym Lothar Schuler first in Tagesspiegel and then in two dozen other West German newspapers. The film title Dangerous Vacation was adopted for publication in book form .
The film premiered on October 19, 1953 in Stockholm , Sweden . In Great Britain it started on November 2nd of the same year. In Germany it was released in cinemas on December 18, 1953.
The exterior shots were shot in Berlin. Filming locations included the Brandenburg Gate , the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church , the Berlin Radio Tower , the Kurfürstendamm , Moritzplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg , the Schiller Theater and Berlin-Tempelhof Airport . The Ballhaus scene with Kern and Susanne was filmed in the New Ballhaus Resi , whose signs, special table telephones and unique illuminated water features on the stage can be clearly seen in the film. The studio recordings were made in Shepperton Studios , Surrey , England. The film constructions come from Andrej Andrejew .
James Mason worked with director Carol Reed for the second time after being outcast (1947). The stage actress Claire Bloom, on the other hand, was relatively new to the film business and was only seen on screen for the fourth time. Hildegard Knef is named Hildegarde Neff in the original opening credits .
criticism
The lexicon of international films describes the production as “a perfectly and coolly constructed crime thriller and political thriller with an unconvincing time and local flavor. The film does not stand up to the comparison with Reed's materially related, artistically and atmospherically much denser Third Man (1949). "
The film magazine Cinema , on the other hand, praised it as “exciting story, fascinatingly staged” .
Awards
James Mason received the NBR Award for Best Actor in 1953 for his performance in the film and in the films Face to Face , Die Wüstenratten and Julius Caesar .
literature
- Walter Ebert: Dangerous vacation. Amsel Verlag, Berlin 1953
Web links
- Dangerous holiday in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The perfect tear in Der Spiegel No. 19/1953 of May 6, 1953, accessed on October 30, 2012. The title “Suzanne experiences Berlin” quoted in the article is incorrect, the first print in the Tagesspiegel was as Susanne in Berlin , see PDF - Download of the 17th sequel in Tagesspiegel from June 8, 1951.
- ↑ a b Dangerous Vacation in the Internet Movie Database .
- ↑ a b Dangerous Vacation in the Lexicon of International Films .
- ↑ Critique of Cinema