bensonmum2 Berlin Express is a mystery set shortly after WWII on an Army transport train headed from Paris to Berlin. The train carries an assortment of characters, all with different backgrounds and allegiances. The trip is sidetracked in Frankfurt after the attempted assassination and later kidnapping of a German named Paul Lukas. Lukas has the ideas and wherewithal to deliver a unified post-WWII Germany. Others, however, do not want to see this happen and would rather Germany remain divided. I know a lot of this may sound vague and incomplete, but I've probably already given away too much of the mystery as it is.Overall, I would describe Berlin Express as a nice, but never great, film. The movie opens with a voice-over narration that is absolutely necessary to set-up what's to come. These monologues can sometimes annoy me, but without it here, the film would have taken at least an additional hour to explain what was happening. The acting here is solid, but not necessarily spectacular. Robert Ryan and Merle Oberon head the talented United Nations-style cast. The mystery elements work in Berlin Express. Curt Siodmak is responsible for the twisted, sometimes confusing, but always engaging, screenplay. The big twist to the plot that comes near the 30 minute mark worked almost perfectly on me. It really caught me off guard. Most of the story is told in a documentary, matter-of-fact style that suits the somber surroundings. Speaking of the surroundings, the real star here are the locations. The movie was shot in the actual post-war ruins of Frankfurt. The bombed out building, the crumbling infrastructure, and the gut-wrenching homelessness are filmed magnificently. It's sad and horrific, but absolutely beautiful.

writers_reign Something of a curio. Jacques Tourneur, Robert Ryan and the authentic locations - Frankfurt, Berlin featuring post-war devastation - are all pluses as is the distinctive tones of Paul Stewart handling the narration but the similarities with Graham Greene's Stamboul Train and the thirties movie Rome Express tend to distract. The plot itself is vague where it should be clear just who is who and exactly why one or more whos want to eliminate another who. Paul Lukes, an excellent but grossly underused actor could phone this in while appearing in Broadway on Watch On The Rhine. Tourneur does his best to get a turgid script on its feet and keep it moving but it's a curio at best.

alpikecp The film brings back many memories as I was a small child in Frankfort in 1946-47; my father was with the US Army, and worked in the I.G. Farben building. I remember riding the continuous elevators, and enjoying milk shakes in the restaurant. I recall having lunch many times with my mother in a restaurant across the street from the train station. Years later I would visit Frankfort many times enjoying great tasty burgers, sausages, and beer at the train station, and traveling out of there for other German and Swiss cities. I toured the I.G. Farben building and even found the house we called our home during those years.

dbdumonteil The last lines of the movie leave a bitter taste in the mouth and the pacifist's dream has not yet come true."Berlin express" is a travel trough a wasted land ;the thriller side (whodunit:and there are clues to find the killer) takes a beck seat to the depiction of the ruins the madness of a FÜhrer has left behind .Attention to detail is remarkable:the cigarette falling on the ground in the station,for instance.And Tourneur is part of the directors who can make the best of a banal place :a nightclub ,a clown and a false medium can be as disturbing as a train belting along in the night (see the moor in " circle of danger" , the children's party in "curse of the Demon ",the pool in "cat people" ).