One of the first American films made in postwar Germany,
Berlin Express brings together two noir favorites: director Jacques Tourneur and leading man Robert Ryan. Ryan plays American everyman Robert Lindley, who happens to be traveling by U.S. Army train to Berlin when Dr. Bernhardt (Paul Lukas), a high-profile activist for German peace and reunification, is kidnapped from Frankfurt station following an attempt on his life onboard. Merle Oberon plays Bernhardt’s secretary Lucienne, who implores Lindley and other fellow passengers to help her find the doctor; after all, they met him and know what he looks like. Reluctantly, they all split up to search Frankfurt for clues to Bernhardt’s whereabouts, ultimately homing in on a nightclub singer who smokes the same unusual style of cigarette as the doctor. Written by Curt Siodmak, brother of noir auteur Robert Siodmak,
Berlin Express effectively uses the bombed-out, labyrinthine landscape of postwar Germany to establish a tone of hopelessness, much like the “rubble films” being produced by German filmmakers at the time (see 1946’s
Murderers Among Us). Tourneur maintains a brisk, action-driven pace throughout; just when we think the final showdown in the abandoned brewery has given way to the film’s denouement, more danger arises.
