Subway in the Sky
6 /10 1 Votes
Director Muriel Box Music director Mario Nascimbene Duration Language English | 5.8/10 IMDb Genre Crime, Drama Cinematography Wilkie Cooper Country United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date 1959 (1959) Based on the book by Bruce Birch and the play by Ian Main Writer Jack Andrews, Bruce Birch (book), Ian Main (play) Cast Van Johnson (Major Baxter Grant), Hildegard Knef (Lilli Hoffman), Albert Lieven (Carl), Cec Linder (Carson), Vivian Matalon (Stefan Grant), Carl Jaffe (dt. Kriminalbeamter)Similar movies Mysterious Intruder , Impact , The Final Alliance , Tokolosh , Rhino , Baby Brown Tagline Hunted! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
An Army major (Van Johnson) solves a black-market mystery with a cabaret singer (Hildegarde Neff) in postwar Berlin.
Contents
Subway in the Sky is a 1959 British crime film directed by Muriel Box and starring Van Johnson, Hildegard Knef and Albert Lieven. Hildegard Knef, who changed career in the 1960s to become a cabaret singer and songwriter, sings one song in the film, "It Isnt Love."
Berlin provides the backdrop for this crime drama that centers on a military doctor falsely accused of dealing illegal drugs. Determined to prove his innocence, he escapes from the MPs and ends up holing up in the apartment his wife rented. He doesn't know that she has sublet the flat to a nightclub singer. When he finds out, he begs the singer to assist him. She is attracted to him and agrees. The doctor believes that his wife is behind the black-market dealings, but in the end, they find the real culprit.
Plot
Baxter Grant, an American soldier in West Berlin, deserts and goes on the run when faced with false drug trafficking and murder charges. He takes shelter with cabaret singer Lilli Hoffman, who he manages to persuade to help prove his innocence.
Cast
Critical reception
Leonard Maltin gave the film one and a half out of four stars, calling it a "flabby caper," regarding it a "terrible waste of (Hildegard) Neffs talents" ; whereas Tony Sloman gave it three out of five stars in the Radio Times, calling it, "a film that wasnt highly regarded on its release, but thanks to its cast, subject matter and director bears re-evaluation today. (It) features two particularly watchable stars, both of whom have done better work than this. Ageing bobby-sox idol Van Johnson is a better actor than is generally acknowledged; he had a propensity for worried, introverted heroes...The director is Muriel Box, one of the few English women directors to have had a successful screen career, though here she struggles to keep the stage origins of the material hidden. Wilkie Coopers stark black-and-white photography is excellent."
References
Subway in the Sky WikipediaSubway in the Sky IMDb Subway in the Sky themoviedb.org