Torn Curtain (1966)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock | 128 minutes | thriller | Actors: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova, Hansjörg Felmy, Tamara Toumanova, Wolfgang Kieling, Ludwig Donath, Günter Strack, Gisela Fischer, Mort Mills, Carolyn Conwell, Arthur Gould-Porter, Gloria Gorvin, Robert Boon, Peter Bourne, Linda Carol, Rico Cattani, Andrea Darvi, Maurice Doner, Harold Dyrenforth, David Opatoshu, Gerd Rein, Peter Lorre Jr., Mischa Hausserman

One of the most legendary film composers of the twentieth century was Bernard Herrmann. Although he already wrote beautiful scores in the years prior to which he achieved great success, the general public will always link him to Alfred Hitchcock. Between 1955 (‘The Trouble with Harry’) and 1964 (‘Marnie’) the two greats worked together and it is precisely during this period that masterpieces such as ‘Vertigo’ (1958), ‘North by Northwest’ (1959) and ‘Psycho’ ( 1960) originated. All films that largely owed their impact to Herrmann’s penetrating, almost magical music. The successful collaboration came to an abrupt end in 1966 when Hitchcock fired his favorite composer during the production of ‘Torn Curtain’. Under pressure from production house Universal, Hitch demanded a jazzy soundtrack from Herrmann that would also do well in the charts, but the composer had made a traditional score. Hitchcock resolutely disapproved of this and hired John Addison for the music. He and Herrmann would never work together again after that.

In ‘Torn Curtain’, Paul Newman plays Michael Armstrong, an American physicist who had to stop his research into ways to use nuclear energy during the Cold War by Washington’s orders. Together with his fiancée and assistant Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews), he attends a conference in Copenhagen. There Sarah notices that he is starting to behave strangely. She discovers that Michael has booked a flight to East Berlin. She goes after them, only to discover that he has defected to spy for the Eastern Bloc. What she doesn’t know, however, is that Michael is actually a counter-spy, who goes into enemy territory to extract important information from a brilliant professor (Ludwig Donath) to pass it on to the west. When Armstrong is cornered by his personal guard Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling) and forced to kill him with the help of a distressed farmer’s wife, his deception is revealed. Pursued by the Stasi, Michael and Sarah try to escape enemy East Berlin.

“I wish I didn’t have to shoot the picture. When I’ve gone through the script and created the picture on paper, for me the creative job is done and the rest is just a bore.” That’s what Hitchcock said about ‘Torn Curtain’, the film that the connoisseurs call one of his least successful. Hitch apparently thought so too. Not only was there a lack of Herrmann’s music, he was also at odds with screenwriter Brian Moore. Since Hitchcock subsequently hired other writers to wrap things up, the script hangs together like loose sand. The story of ‘Torn Curtain’ is not very original in itself, but a Hitchcock in shape could have turned it into something special. Except for a single memorable scene, the film is nothing special. The uninspired performances by Paul Newman and Julie Andrews are to blame for this, as well as the slow pace at which the film drags on and the lack of the black humor that is so characteristic of Hitchcock. Moreover, at times you can very well see that the actors are sitting in front of a projection screen… In two scenes in the first half of the film, Hitchcock does show what he has to offer; the one in which Michael is chased into an East Berlin museum by his ‘watchdog’ Gromek and the terrifying murder scene at a remote farm. The latter may even be grouped among other legendary murders from Hitchcock’s work, such as the shower murder from ‘Psycho’ and the real-life strangulation murder from ‘Frenzy’ (1972).

It also doesn’t help that protagonists Paul Newman and Julie Andrews—two of the biggest stars of the mid-1960s after all—are absolutely lacking in their roles. According to the stories, Paul Newman was already happy that he was allowed to work with the great Hitchcock, but he does not show that anywhere. The story goes that halfway through the shooting, the actor already called out that they were working on a ‘failure’. Newman is dull, passive and completely unconvincing as a brilliant scientist. The choice for Andrews is remarkable in itself, because of her ‘Mary Poppins’ image. But the equally brave Doris Day had previously managed to surprise Hitchcock and the audience with her role in ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ (1956), so the director hoped for the same effect. However, he was disappointed; Andrews doesn’t like this role and naively and aimlessly walks after Newman. There is of course no question of any chemistry between the protagonists – both of whom already have a cool, distant appearance. Fortunately, a number of supporting actors manage to convince. Wolfgang Kieling, for example, is as strong as the villainous ‘bodyguard’ Gromek. Russian actress Lila Kedrova provides a rare comedic twist as an eccentric Polish countess eager to leave for the US, and Ludwig Donath is captivating as the brilliant Professor Lindt.

‘Torn Curtain’ could have been a strong film if the pieces of the puzzle had fallen into place. However, several signs indicate that few people really wanted to make this film. It has therefore become one of the lesser films of the master of suspense, which offers only a few inventive and penetrating scenes, of which the gruesome and dragging murder scene will remain with the viewer for a long time. ‘Torn Curtain’ is not representative of Alfred Hitchcock’s work (nor that of Newman and Andrews), but nevertheless offers a decent dose of entertainment. After all, it remains a Hitchcock, so it can never be really dramatic.