The Man Between

This follow-on to The Third Man arrives in a newly restored 2K version and is based upon the Walter Ebert novel ‘Susanne in Berlin’. Just like post-war Berlin of 1953 is a mixed affair comprised of East and West, this film is certainly also a mixed bag with the first half plodding along so-so before things finally pick up in the second half leading to a tense finale. James Mason, Claire Bloom and Hildegard Neff are mixed up in a dangerous romantic triangle with political undertones.

When Susanne Mallison (Claire Bloom) arrives in Berlin to visit her brother Martin she is greeted by Bettina (Hildegard Neff), Martin’s newlywed wife, at the airport. En route to the apartment Bettina treats Susanne to a little ‘sight seeing tour’ and we see nice cafés and shops but also a lot of ruins and building destroyed during WW2. In the apartment Martin (Geoffrey Toon), who works as a doctor for the British Army, is thrilled to see his sister and the three go to a restaurant that same evening where Susanne can’t help but noticing that Betty seem extremely agitated and makes excuses to go to the washroom. Through a mirror Susanne observes that Betty doesn’t go to the washroom at all but instead talks to someone hidden behind some large plants. Back home, Betty hears a noise late at night and peeping through the door of her guest room she sees a boy on a bicycle secretly delivering a letter to Bettina. The following day Betty takes Susanne into the East sector of Berlin, a rather grim looking part with posters of Stalin and Communist slogans all over the place. In a café Betty bumps into an old friend of hers, Ivo Kern (James Mason) and straight away he seems smitten upon being introduced to Susanne though she doesn’t notice that the boy on the bicycle is lurking about outside, indeed he seems to turn up wherever Ivo goes and possibly Betty too…

The following day Ivo invites Susanne to come ice-skating with him, something that leaves Betty angry. During a minor confrontation Betty reveals that Ivo is a former boyfriend and that he’s generally bad news because in the West he used to be a lawyer involved in Nazi atrocities. Now he sells his know-how to the East Germans in order to kidnap and transport certain individuals from West to East although he himself dreams of returning to the West again - something that’s made difficult due to his former involvement with the Nazis. Betty warns Susanne that Ivo is a cold and calculating man and his charm only a façade to get what he wants but Susanne is not so sure. Soon Ivo is mixed up with a man called Halander who blackmails him about a man called Kastner, a guy who helps smuggling people out of the East. Soon the situation grows ever more dangerous when a plan to kidnap Kastner goes wrong and in an act of revenge Halander’s men attempt to kidnap Betty but in a case of mistaken identity they kidnap Susanne instead. Meanwhile Betty confesses that Ivo is in fact not only her former boyfriend but still her legal husband and Martin is left shattered by the news. Trapped in the Eastern sector, Ivo realises that Susanne’s life is in danger if she refuses to act as bait in order to catch Kastner. Ivo arranges to meet at the local Opera House (where we are treated to a performance by opera star Ljuba Welitsch singing ‘Salome’) and together with Susanne and two Comrades he plans on escaping into the West… but the borders are patrolled and Halander’s men are after them. As the film heads towards its nail-biting climax, cinematographer Desmond Dickinson makes the most of the ravaged-by-war buildings and ruins.

The performances are without any flaw and the authentic setting adds much to the story, however, it is a shame that the script seems rather unbalanced with all the action reserved for the final stages of the second half. Nonetheless, fans of post-war spy thrillers will no doubt be pleased that this restored film makes his Blu-ray and DVD debut.