The Man Between

"Terror! Vice! Violence! He stopped at nothing!"

1953 1h 40m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

★7.2TMDB · 70

Thriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A British woman on a visit to post-war Berlin is caught up in an espionage ring smuggling secrets into and out of the Eastern Bloc.

“Terror! Vice! Violence! He stopped at nothing!”

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Cast

Claire Bloom
Suzanne Mallison
James Mason
Ivo Kern
Hildegard Knef
Bettina
Geoffrey Toone
Martin Mallison
Hilde Sessak
Lizzi
Aribert Wäscher
Halendar
Ernst Schröder
Olaf Kastner
Dieter Krause
Horst

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Carol Reed
Writers: Harry Kurnitz, Walter Ebert
Languages: Russian, German, English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

73 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Russian, German, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Carol Reed, shot by Desmond Dickinson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Addison. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Bert Bates shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Claire Bloom and James Mason and Hildegard Knef carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Terror! Vice! Violence! He stopped at nothing!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0046031 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Carol Reed directs. Desmond Dickinson behind the camera. John Addison scores. Bert Bates cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in Russian, German, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

173 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Russian, German, English.
3Directed by Carol Reed, shot by Desmond Dickinson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by John Addison. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Bert Bates shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Claire Bloom and James Mason and Hildegard Knef carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Terror! Vice! Violence! He stopped at nothing!".
8IMDB entry: tt0046031 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 70 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Desmond Dickinson
Original score: John Addison
Editing: Bert Bates
Costume design: Bridget Sellers
Makeup / hair: Tony Sforzini
Runtime: 100 min · 1h 40m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: The Man Between (1953)

Also by

Carol Reed

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-09-25
★ 7/10
Very much in the vein of Carol Reed's similar cold war thriller "The Third Man" (1949), this is a gritty and characterful story set in Berlin just before the Soviet Union imposed travel restrictions. This time, the Communists kidnap "Susanne" (Claire Bloom) - she happens to be the sister of British officer "Martin" (Geoffrey Toone) and we are now presented with an intriguing and internecine series of spy and counter-spy scenarios that revolve around the dubious "Ivo" (James Mason) with whom the missing woman had been associating with - and has fallen for. It transpires that she is being held so that they can use her as leverage for the return of "Kastner" (Ernst Schröder), a lawyer with a distinctly dodgy pre-war past. It now falls to "Ivo" to rescue her and smuggle her to safety. Desmond Dickinson's dark and eery photography - especially in what's left of the heavily bombed out Berlin - coupled with a seedy and effective John Addison score work well to create an atmospheric environment. I didn't love Mason's rather unreliable German accent, but Bloom is quite effective and there are compensating and strong supporting contributions from an on-form Hildegard Knef ("Bettina") and from Aribert Wäscher as the untrustworthy "Halendar" as the plot twists and turns towards quite a menacing and tightly shot denouement. The narrative is tight, the romance sparing, it is frequently quite compelling to watch and it does have a ring of plausibility to it. A superior crime drama well worth a watch.

Production companies