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.
Review of Beyond the Curtain
