''The Man Between'' (also known as ''Berlin Story'') is a 1953

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

Carol Reed Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for ''Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), ''The Third Man'' (1949), and '' Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded the ...

and starring

James Mason James Neville Mason (; 15 May 190927 July 1984) was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was the top box-office attraction in the UK in 1944 and 1945; his British films inc ...

Claire Bloom Patricia Claire Bloom (born 15 February 1931) is an English actress. She is known for leading roles in plays such as ''A Streetcar Named Desire,'' ''A Doll's House'', and '' Long Day's Journey into Night'', and has starred in nearly sixty film ...

and

Hildegard Knef Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef (; 28 December 19251 February 2002) was a German actress, voice actress, singer, and writer. She was billed in some English-language films as Hildegard Neff or Hildegarde Neff. Early years Hildegard Knef was born ...

. The screenplay concerns a British woman on a visit to post-war

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, who is caught up in an espionage ring smuggling secrets into and out of the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

Plot

Susanne Mallison (

) arrives at

Tempelhof Airport Berlin Tempelhof Airport (german: Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof) was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, leav ...

to the post-war

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

, at that point still generally open to the people of

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

before the construction of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

. She looks around the war-ravaged city with her sister-in-law Bettina, including the ruins of the Reichstag. After a night in a nightclub they plan to visit the eastern sector the next day. Entry is simple, and they show their papers and a barrier lifts to give them entry. The atmosphere is different, with huge posters of

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

decorating the buildings. There they bump into Ivo Kern (

) in a cafe. They return to the west sector and Susanne visits Martin, her brother (Bettina's husband), who is on military duties overseeing supplies to the city. Susanne starts dating Ivo. He confesses that he once was in love with Bettina. He arrives to collect her in a

VW Beetle The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...

and they go skating. The sinister Halendar appears almost each time they meet. Bettina confesses to both Martin and Susanne that she was married to Ivo until 1943. Martin and a friend plot to kidnap Ivo but he guesses this and sends a boy to leave a sign in the snow that he is not coming. Susanne goes out in the snow and is bundled into a car. Ivo argues with Hallendar saying he has kidnapped the wrong woman. Ivo is a former lawyer who has participated in

Nazi atrocities The governments of the German Empire and Nazi Germany (under Adolf Hitler) ordered, organized and condoned a substantial number of war crimes, first in the Herero and Namaqua genocide and then in the First and Second World Wars. The most notabl ...

and is now selling his expertise to

East Germans East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

to kidnap and transport certain West Germans to the Eastern bloc. Although Ivo desires to relocate to the West, he is hampered by West German suspicions and his criminal past. Nevertheless, he agrees to a final kidnapping venture that fails, forcing his employer to take over and abduct Briton Susanne by mistake. Ivo had earlier feigned a romance with Susanne as a means to seize his kidnapping target. The abduction of Susanne presents Ivo with an opportunity to both return the unfortunate victim to the West and impress Western authorities with his atonement. Despite Ivo's selfish and dark facade, Susanne falls in love with him. She tells him that she can see humanity deep inside a man who had once wished to defend the innocent and the 'rights of man'. This glimpse also appears to a young East Berlin boy who assists Ivo and Susanne in their attempt to escape, as he follows Ivo everywhere and the boy is treated with kindness. Ivo almost admits his affection for Susanne on one occasion but he directs the conversation back to his sordid past and the escape attempt. Ivo and Susanne narrowly avoid capture and wander through the ruins of East Berlin. They try to board a train at Friedrichstrasse but there are too many ID checks. They sabotage a generator to kill the lights to cross a large building site. The message boy (Horst) appears on the east side (it is not explained how he crosses the border). Ivo persuades a woman to give them her flat for the night. They kiss for the first time and it is implied they sleep together. The boy comes to the flat with a laundry lorry driven by Kastner. They hide in the back as it drives to the crossing point. They hold each other. Ultimately, as Ivo and Susanne are only a few feet from the

Brandenburg Gate The Brandenburg Gate (german: Brandenburger Tor ) is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after restoring the Orangist power by suppressing the Dutch popular unrest. One ...

, hidden in the back of a truck, the truck breaks down. Kastner gets it restarted but not before drawing attention to the lorry, as during his attempts to restart the truck, the capped boy circles on his bike in no-mans-land and has been noticed by one of the border guards; it is he who has unwittingly betrayed them by his presence. Ivo jumps out of the back and is chased by the border guards as he runs from the vehicle. As the truck crosses the neutral zone Ivo tries to reach the back and she reaches back for his hand, but he is gunned down by the guards, having sacrificed his life to help Susanne escape.

Cast

as Ivo Kern *

as Susanne Mallison *

as Bettina *

Geoffrey Toone Geoffrey Toone (15 November 1910 – 1 June 2005) was an English character actor and former matinee idol, born in Ireland. Most of his film roles after the 1930s were in supporting parts, usually as authority figures, though he did play the lead ...

as Martin *

Aribert Wäscher Aribert Wäscher (1 December 1895 – 14 December 1961) was a German film actor. Selected filmography * '' The Black Tulip Festival'' (1920) * ''The Graveyard of the Living'' (1921) * ''Slums of Berlin'' (1925) * ''The Hanseatics'' (1925) * '' T ...

as Halendar * Ernst Schröder as Kastner * Dieter Krause as Horst * Hilde Sessak as Lizzi * Karl John as Inspector Kleiber *

Ljuba Welitsch Ljuba Welitsch (''Veličkova''; bg, Люба Величкова 10 July 1913 – 1 September 1996) was an operatic soprano. She was born in Borisovo, Bulgaria, studied in Sofia and Vienna, and sang in opera houses in Austria and Germany in ...

as Salome

Production

The movie was filmed on location in

, at the

Shepperton Studios Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not to be confused w ...

in England and at

Richmond Ice Rink Richmond Ice Rink was an ice skating rink at Clevedon Road, Twickenham, formerly in Middlesex and now in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. When it opened, in 1928, it had the longest ice surface in any indoor rink in the world and it s ...

Reception

James Mason won the best actor award from the

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote: "It must be said, without reflection, that the credit for whatever there is in the way of exciting melodrama in this primarily atmospheric film goes to Mr. Reed for his direction of the actors and camera. For it is the attitudes of his people, the moods of the city in various scenes and the cleverness of the assembly, rather than the sharpness of the story told, that account for the modest distinction on the quality level of ''The Man Between''."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Man Between, The 1953 films 1950s spy thriller films British black-and-white films British spy thriller films Cold War spy films Films directed by Carol Reed Films scored by John Addison Films set in Berlin Films shot in Berlin Films with screenplays by Harry Kurnitz Films set in East Germany Films set in West Germany 1950s English-language films 1950s British films