Myriam Nys In New York, a camera crew films long-legged models parading in front of a bank. Making a news reel about feminine fashion seems like the most mundane of assignments. However, the film, once developed, contains images so shocking, so spectacular that people are willing to lie, scheme and kill in order to obtain it...Clever little thriller with ingenious plot twists and welcome flashes of wit. (Watch out for the scene where the hero, threatened by enemies, has an idea of genius : he lights up a cigarette in a "No Smoking" area.) "Close-up" boasts a decent plot, decent performances and an inventive use of the urban environment. On the other hand, the general atmosphere could be darker : there is very little in the way of frightening eeriness or venomous fanaticism. To me this seems like a bit of a missed opportunity, since the idea of a dead / alive Nazi on the loose in an unsuspecting city is quite grisly.Still, well worth your time.

clanciai I love this film. It's so full of surprising turnings and brilliant innovations that you actually must enjoy being taken for a ride. The story in itself is ingenious, by accident an ordinary news reel camera man gets someone like Martin Bormann into the picture, and naturally those Nazis having just come out of the bank after some major transactions want to get hold of that film as a matter of life and death.. What follows is a tumultuous roller-coaster of a hunt for the negative, which involves no end to confuisons, and naturally there is a double-crossing dame involved also, and the poor journalist in all his innocence has every reason to get mad. Fortunately he has a cheerful assistant who always manages to keep him happy after all.There are some striking shots on the way that Hitchcock would have enjoyed, and of course some major close-ups. This is one of those films that in all their confusing up and down turnings leaving you more bewildered than the hero. you must look forward to seeing it some time again.

bkoganbing That trans-Atlantic studio Eagle-Lion is the responsible party for giving us Close-Up. A film that seems strange to categorize and ends up being bad noir, bad mystery, and the comic relief of Joey Faye falls flatter than the desert.Alan Baxter and Joey Faye are a pair of newsreel cameramen who on a fashion shoot outside a bank get some footage of a missing Nazi war criminal Richard Kollmar. Kollmar's name in the film is Martin Beaumont, get it Martin Borrmann. I assure in 1948 no one would have missed that connection. Of course this was way before the Russians bothered to tell the world they killed Borrmann in Berlin.In any event Kollmar's in New York and looking to travel farther. He's hooked up with gangster Phillip Huston to get transportation to a safe haven for Nazis. But Huston has plans of his own for Borrmann's money. He wants a lot more than the $15,000.00 he's been promised.Virginia Gilmore is the female lead, she's the moll for Huston and serves as one of many attempts to get the incriminating film footage. This woman deserves better than being in this film. Joey Faye is Alan Baxter's sidekick and simply isn't funny.The film's premise was interesting and could have been better with proper treatment at an A Studio.

Benoit Vanhees Without realizing it, two newsreel reporters took pictures of a surviving nazi-leader in front of a bank, while filming fashion mannequins in the streets of New York. The German, who was thought to have died during the war, was inquiring if he could recuperate a large sum of money. He needs it, to be able to continue Hitler's dream after the dictator's death. He is helped by a criminal gang, which is only in it for a slice of the money, not for political reasons. Hal Ericson's description in the All Movie Guide of the gang as being a "secret neo-nazi gang" is therefor incorrect. The gang will make several attempts to recuperate the film and its negatives, including by kidnapping one of the reporters. The boss of the two reporters however discovers whose face has been captured on the newsreel, and contacts the authorities.The problem with this rare B movie is that it just can't decide whether it wants to be a kind of political thriller, a crime movie or some kind of comedy. The final result therefor isn't very bright, without being terrible at the same time. The movie sure is watchable till the predictable end, but well... The script isn't always very convincing or logical. While the Nazi leader's henchman doesn't hesitate to kill one of the criminals, the 'hero' has more luck, and only gets knocked out with a gun on his head. Dialogs are quite poor, no cute « one-liners », no quick exchanges of wisecracks etc. Well, the hero's colleague is trying to be a funny guy every now and then, but the movie would have done perfectly well without this kind of clowning.Alan Baxter may be in the words of Hal Ericson a "character actor", but you won't see very much of it in this movie. Alan Ladd playing like he played in The Glass Key though would have made a good choice. That would have given the movie that extra status it desperately needed to rise above its mediocrity. The soundtrack doesn't help either. While the main title track you'll hear while the names of the actors are shown is OK, the music during the key moments of the movie doesn't support the action. I'd rather qualify it as simply irritating. I'd give it a 6/10