Subway in the Sky (1959) User Reviews

Good story, nicely made

[[e-mail] · 6/10 · 22 December 2006]

Editor: Mr Harvey's somewhat over-the-top negative review of SUBWAY IN THE SKY may keep viewers away from what was a modestly made yet enjoyable story. Having just seen the picture for the first time yesterday I can honestly say that I was surprised how interesting it was. It kept the viewer firmly in his seat and was well acted by most of the performers. Van Johnson was playing a part unusual for him and he did it well while Hildegard Neff was fascinating to watch. The film was well edited and nicely photographed within the constraints of what was, of course, a filmed play.

While I agree that Muriel Box and her writers could have made it more cinematic by opening up the play more I cannot fault her for having told a good story. Mr Harvey's lambasting the film for poor writing and ineptitude is inexplicable considering what I saw on the screen. If you're in the mood for a tight, simple and cozy thriller some evening, catch it when it's on TV...and have a good supply of popcorn handy.

I would recommend the film to anyone who enjoys a briskly told story.

Subway In The Sky

[Oslo_Jargo · 7/10 · 25 June 2014]

I love the intro of Subway In The Sky, a jazzy-music, night-filled shot with a jeep running along the highway. Subway In The Sky isn't a bad little thriller. Van Johnson is Major Baxter Grant, an American soldier in charge of supplies who may or may not be running illegal sales of drugs to the postwar Berlin black market or underground economy.

Cec Linder plays a nosy military police commander on Van Johnson's track. Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef is a cabaret singer who finds Van Johnson in her apartment. It's a bit dopey since she falls for him right off. Still, it's got enough good acting and a decent story to pull you through to the end.

It's not easy to find, but definitely worth viewing.

Subway in the Sky review

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 29 June 2020]

Army officer Van Johnson spends most of the movie hiding out in Hildegarde Neff's apartment as he tries to prove his innocence of drug theft and murder. Cec Linder steals the show as the MP on his trail in this fairly ordinary thriller.

Wearisome and stale alleged thriller

[lorenellroy · 23 May 2002]

This movie is based on a stage play and it shows--despite some opening out of the action much of the picture takes place on a single set. Van Johnson-here simply going through the motions-plays Major Baxter Grant,an American army doctor in post war Germany who is falsely accused of drug dealing and murder .He flees to Berlin where his wife Anna(a wooden Katherine Kath)is still living She has rented their apartment to a cabaret singer played with some style by Hildegarde Neff who believes in his innocence and shields him from both the German police and the American army investigator played well by Cec Linder who makes the most of his role as a vulpine and unpleasant albeit competent investigator

Will Baxter be cleared?Who is the real villain?Will you remain awake long enough to satisfy yourself on these points?

It is very talky with poor dialogue and ineptly handled action scenes.Box does not direct the film -she merely points the camera in the general direction of the cast and lets them sink or swim

Exactly the kind of tepid dross that gave much of mainstream British cinema in the era such a reputation for listless,supine bourgeois ineptitude.

Late 1950s West German chic

[sb19034 · 7/10 · 11 December 2020]

Just an easy watch that entertains. Hildegard Knef, well you can guess she was quite the star in West Germany in those days.

Entertaining Period Puecr

[pgeary6001 · 4/10 · 11 January 2021]

Not s classic by any means and clunky at times in both script and character motivation, this is nevertheless a fun, easygoing watch. It's adapted from a stage play, which is easy to discern from the structure of the film (lots of action in one living room, where doorbells keep ringing with people constantly going in and out).

We watched it on late night TV and neither fell asleep nor changed channels, so consider that an endorsement!

Stage-bound play adaptation is boring beyond belief

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 26 August 2016]

SUBWAY IN THE SKY is a very dull British thriller based around illegal drug smuggling in the army. Lame duck actor Van Johnson plays an American major who is falsely accused of being a drug dealer so he decides to go A.W.O.L. in an attempt to clear his name. He hides out in his wife's apartment, little realising that it has already been leased to a German singer who chooses to help him in his quest for justice.

I don't know much about Van Johnson outside of this movie but I can report that his performance here is perfunctory at best. He's hardly the type of hero you can root for or indeed even care about as he feels wooden throughout. Hildegard Knef is much better as the warm-hearted singer who befriends him although the best performance goes to Cec Linder whose character has a Terminator-style unstoppable quality about him in his relentless and incessant hunt for the missing man.

SUBWAY IN THE SKY is one of those movies based on a stage play and it does feel very stage bound and constrained by the single location. It's also incredibly boring, with never a moment of suspense or tension in all those long minutes of running time. I don't wish to knock the talents of director Muriel Box but she doesn't really feel cut out for film on the strength of her work here. The film has a single decent scene, a shockingly explicit moment on a balcony, and that's exactly it.

Circumstances have changed.

[mark.waltz · 10/10 · 14 October 2022]

That's a great quote by the very alluring Hildegard Knef in this above average thriller starring Van Johnson as an American soldier in Germany wanted for questioning in a murder case, hiding in his own house, subleased to Knef by his estranged wife Katherine Kath, a very troubled woman. Knef, who made a splash on Broadway in the Cole Porter musical "Silk Stockings", isn't well represented by the original cast album, but when you see her singing in one scene here, it's very apparent that she has quite more star appeal than the album suggested. No wonder Billy Wilder would utilize her as the aging countess 20 years later in "Fedora".

There are some truly shocking moments in this film that are very Hitchcock like in manner, mainly involving Johnson and Kath's very troubled son, Vivian Matalon, and for those who doubt Johnson's dramatic acting ability will be quite impressed with him here. I too had my doubts about him after all those comedies and musicals he did at MGM (continuing to the stage later on), and he's quite believable as this very desperate man with little hope of clearing himself. Cec Linder and Albert Lieven are also great in supporting roles. This is probably one of the best thrillers and film noir that most people have never heard of, and it's definitely a hidden classic. This is one of those rare late black and white films that really works without color photography as it truly adds to the suspense, and it makes me want to see more of Knef on screen.