Richard Greene plays an airline pilot whose air stewardess fiancée is kidnapped by the East German authorities when her plane is forced down to an Eastern Germany airport.The stewardess,played by Eva Bartok,is then sent to a house of detention in Leipzig and then returned to her mother in Dresden by the sinister doctor played by Marius goring.Incidentally the mother is played by Lucie Mannheim who is most famous for playing the spy killed in Robert Donats flat in Hitchs version of The 39 Steps.The reason for this lenient treatment would appear to be that the stasi are trying to capture Bartoks brother,an opponent of the regime,and hope she will lead them to him.Greene goes into East Germany to rescue Bartok.He eventually finds her and they make their way through ruins in Berlin,evade capture and escape to freedom in the West.The plot itself is reasonably well written with a fair amount of tension.However one big problem is that though only in his 40s Greene looks well past his best.Although in real life only 9 years older than Bartok he actually looks about 20 years older.Interestingly enough at the final fadeout the close up is on her dancing with Greene,you can only see Greenes right cheek.It is a reasonable time filler.
Add a Review
-
malcolmgsw22 December 2011
-
boblipton21 November 2018The passenger plane that Richard Greene is piloting strays out of the air corridor from Berlin. The plane is forced down by Russians. When local authorities let the plane and passengers continue on their way, Eva Bartok, the stewardess and Greene's fiancee, is held as a German national and sent to Dresden in East Germany. Greene determines to go underground and get her out.
There are some good actors in this Cold War thriller shot entirely in England: not only the leads, but Marius Goring as an old friend of Miss Bartok's who is now working for The Authorities. In all, though, this is a mediocre effort, with its roots deep in cinema, from the days when innocent civilians were trying to escape from Germany during the First World War. Eric Cross' camerawork is competent but undistinguished and it looks like the production was shot for speed and not excellence; a couple of American characters do not bother to maintain their accents. -
Weirdling_Wolf1 May 2022Able journeyman director Compton Bennett reveals some considerable cinematic flair by nimbly orchestrating a goodly number of pulse-poundingly exciting scenes in his intense, competently made, consistently gripping 1960s thriller 'Beyond The Curtain'. Fortuitously working from an effectively lean, unfussy text by Bennett, Charles B. Blair and John Cresswell the pacey, frequently dark thriller finds beautiful, latterly emancipated East German-born Karin (Eva Bartok) in a fraught, emotionally complex dilemma, being recaptured by the conspicuously ominous East German police, as due to turbulence her flight was forced to fatefully cross Russian airspace.
Working for an American airline offers poor Karin no immunity, so her handsome fiancé pilot Richard Greene, desperate to be reunited with his beloved bride-to-be must heroically contrive a daring, increasingly dangerous plot to get her back into his loving, tweed-covered arms! Ostensibly a 'get the good German out of the zealous totalitarian clutches of the DDR' potboiler, but is entertainingly performed with exceptional brio by a wonderful cast, with a deliciously duplicitous turn by mean Marius Goring as the traitorous, deeply conflicted Doctor Hans. It must also be strongly noted that plainly talented D.o.P Eric Cross seems most adept at composing crepuscular, doom-laden night shots. 'Beyond The Curtain' comes very highly recommended as some splendidly rousing cold war-era entertainment!
Hammer Films fans might like to know that the delightful Andree 'Brides of Dracula' Melly is no less scintillating as the courageous anti-communist Linda. -
DoorsofDylan3 October 2022Talking to my dad about the charming Comedy film Don't Take it to Heart (1944-also reviewed), he mentioned about recently getting on DVD, another title starring Richard Greene, leading to us raising the curtain on a viewing.
View on the film:
Filmed in the rubble of post-war Britain standing in for Berlin under Soviet control, co-writer (with John Harlow and John Cresswell) director Compton Bennett & The Flemish Farm (1943-also reviewed) cinematographer Eric Cross heat up the Cold War Thriller atmosphere with excellent panning shots,and rough close-ups under stylish high contrast lighting in real locations, tracking Kyle and Karin attempting to slip from behind the Iron Curtain.
Finding herself trapped in East German, Eva Bartok gives a very good performance as Karin,thanks to Bartok crossing Euro Spy glamour with a brittleness, which becomes more prominent as the secret police reveal themselves, while Richard Greene gives a wonderful, chiseled turn as spy Kyle.
Moving the Iron Curtain by adapting Charles F. Blair and A. J. Wallis novel Thunder Above, the writers keep the tension surprisingly low-key, with Karin discussing with her family and Kyle the escape plans, (with little visible fear of wire taps) which boils over into a tense, extended,final attempted great escape, as Kyle and Karin run to go beyond the curtain. -
mark.waltz7 August 2022What starts out with moderate explanations of the troubled world behind that curtain soon is revealed to the viewer through the eyes of the refugee Eva Bartok, an American stewardess from East Berlin who is forced back to her home when her plane is forced to land and she is removed from the flight. Even though her pilot boyfriend Richard Greene refuses to leave without her, he is told that she left of her free will, and he knows instantly that he's being lied to. Bartok is reunited with ailing mother (a touching Lucie Mannheim) who longs to see her daughter get away from the suppression of the communists.
An intense dark post war thriller (set in the increasing cold war, one seemingly impossible to fight against) is slowly paced but that adds to the intensity. It's really depressing when Bartok arrives at her large family home only to find out that it's been taken over by the government who has installed a nasty landlady on the property who spies on everyone. Her mother has been relegated to the top floor of the building, and is constantly checked on by the sinister Maurice Goring who is searching for her brother, an enemy of the state. It took me a while to get into this, but after a while I found myself enjoying it. Not the best of films about East Berlin, but an acceptable view of a dark time in post-Hitler Germany. -
This is one of those films where the heroes are all very stiff upper lip and the villains are cold and mysterious, certainly a movie of the cold war period.
When an American plane gets drawn off course because of bad weather it mistakenly flies into East German air space, it's forced to land and the people are taken off the plane. When the authorities let the plane leave the stewardess Karin (Eva Bartok) is detained as she is an East German. She is taken home to live with her mother, whilst this is happening her fiancee Jim (Richard Greene) has arrived in Berlin to bring her back. This could be dangerous as she is being watched by Hans (Marius Goring), who works for the Stasi (the East German secret police). With the help of Linda (Andree Melly) Karin and Jim find her brother Peter (who the police are after) and start their escape to the West.
It all sounds more exciting than it actually is but it's got a great cast, especially Melly in a small role. -
coltras3522 February 2023Eva Bartok ("Karin") is an erstwhile air hostess who, when her plane makes an unexpected landing, is compulsorily repatriated to her family home in largely bombed-out Dresden where her mother still lives. Her British fiancé "Jim" (Richard Greene) is soon on the trail as he flies to East Germany to try and rescue her.
A competent and a fairly gripping thriller set in the Cold War. It's well-acted, especially by Eva Bartok, who is forced to face the horror of returning to Dresden and is used as a bait to lead the authorities to her brother. Richard Green plays a dashing hero who is determined to bring her out of the country. It's a rather good film which mixes romance, emotion and intrigue rather well. -
Leofwine_draca6 July 2016BEYOND THE CURTAIN is a Cold War thriller that absolutely pales in comparison to that classic of the genre, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE WORLD, although it does contain a mildly similar, behind-the-curtain type plot. But where SPY excelled, BEYOND THE CURTAIN merely plods along endlessly until a fitfully exciting climax. I'll give this film credit where it's due, however; the early scenes with the plane diversion are quite suspenseful and hide what was obviously a low budget. The ever middle aged-looking Richard Greene (SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST) is the solid - or perhaps that should be stolid - hero who gets involved in the life of Eva Bartok (BLOOD AND BLACK LACE), a stewardess with family living in East Germany.
Once the action shifts behind the Iron Curtain it really should be suspenseful and exciting, but instead it just sort of plods along for a little. Don't get me wrong, it's not exactly bottom of the barrel stuff, it's just not particularly exciting. I notice that this film was put out by the unheard-of 'Welbeck Film Distributors' - something to do with the notorious Harry Alan Towers perchance? At least BEYOND THE CURTAIN picks up towards the climax, set in some disused tunnels, which at least has the suspense and action missing elsewhere. Marius Goring (THE CASE OF THE FRIGHTENED LADY) is a good choice for the antagonist although Bartok ends up grating on the nerves throughout with her incessant screaming and stupid behaviour. As Cold War thrillers go, though, BEYOND THE CURTAIN is only average entertainment. -
The plot was rather confusing, and we're introduced to characters that seem like they'll be major but are only in one or two scenes, it's not a short film but seems to get very little done.
However, acting wise it's not bad at all; Richard Greene is fun as always and Eva Bartok puts up a surprisingly admirable performance as the stewardess. It's really a very bizarre film with a good exciting ending but really no substance to hold up the film. The characters are bland apart from the two leads and the plot really fails quite badly.
4/10: Difficult to enjoy, technically bad but has some fun parts. -
clanciai27 April 2018This is another of those cold war thrillers with manhunts in the ruins of Berlin, this one from the year before the Berlin wall was put up. For some reason this one has been neglected and almost ignored, presumed to be outdated and totally overshadowed by the earlier masterpieces by Carol Reed ("The Third Man", "The Man Between"), "The Big Lift" 1948 and others, but this is actually in line with them and not much worse although more modern. Eva Bartok makes a fully convincing character torn between east and west, between her loyalties to her background and family in Dresden and her love for an American in West Berlin - the scenes from the night clubs in West Berlin are almost sarcastically reminiscent of the much earlier very decadent Berlin of the 20s and 30s - little seems to have changed since then. The insights in Eastern Germany and Dresden are also very revealing as not much different from the Nazi days - Eva Bartok's aristocratic family villa has been taken over by a former Nazi Gauleiter now in the service of DDR.
Richard Greene looks curiously much like Tom Hanks,and his character is even similar to most Hanks characters. It's an interesting film, Marius Goring as the doctor also torn asunder by his duties and loyalties and weakness for Eva is perhaps the most interesting character. The final tunnel chase is all too reminiscent of the final hunt in "The Third Man" but totally different. -
stowner-479-3601536 June 2022I must have watched a different version of the film than some others on here. Richard Greene wasn't flying the aircraft in the one I saw. Also the film I watched was very suspenseful and full of menace in places with believable characters and location (in the main). All in all a good entertaining film well worth seeing.
-
dominicbond2 April 2023Excellent period film set immediately before the construction of the Berlin wall. Karin finds herself grappling many dilemmas after finding herself back behind the iron curtain after the fight she is a stewardess on lands in Eastern Germany. The film gives a feel of the despair of living in a totalitarian regime. The highlight in my opinion was the chace across what appears to be many miles of buildings that were bombed out in the second world war. Although the film is for entertainment it is also historic. The roles are well played. The viewer will find themselves rooting for the characters. 8/10.