Escape from East Berlin (1962)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Robert Siodmak

Writers:

Gabrielle Upton (story) and
Peter Berneis (story) ...

Release Date:

November 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Headline Hot! Filmed Where It Happened!

Plot:

In January of 1962, 29 East Berliners escaped to West Berlin via a tunnel they had dug beneath the Berlin Wall...

Plot Keywords:

Tunnel | Escape | Cellar | Political | East Berlin

Cast

Don Murray	...	Kurt Schröder
Christine Kaufmann	...	Erika Jurgens
Werner Klemperer	...	Walter Brunner
Ingrid van Bergen	...	Ingeborg Schröder
Carl Schell	...	Major Eckhardt (as Karl Schell)
Edith Schultze-Westrum	...	Mother Schröder
Bruno Fritz	...	Uncle Albrecht
Maria Tober	...	Marga
Horst Janson	...	Günther Jurgens
Kai Fischer	...	Heidi Eckhardt
Alfred Balthoff	...	Klussendorf a Neighbor
Anita Kupsch	...	Bambi
Kurt Waitzmann	...	Prof. Thomas Jurgens
Helma Seitz	...	Frau Jürgens
Ronald Dehne	...	Helmut Schröder

Also Known As:

Tunnel 28 (UK) (West Germany)

Runtime:

USA:94 min | USA:89 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA | West Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | Finland:(Banned) (1963) | West Germany:6 (f) | UK:U (1962) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #20288)

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Walter Wood Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Der Tunnel (2001)

Another brick off the wall

Robert Siodmak had nothing to prove when he made "Escape from East Berlin".Maybe his film ,although inspired by real facts ,looks more like fiction,but he knew what he was talking about: Driven away from his land by Goebbels after "Brennendes Geheimnis " in 1933, he took refuge in France where he made at least two classics ("Mollenard" and "Piège" ),then in America where he reached peaks of films noirs ("cry of the city" "spiral staircase" "criss cross" ....).When he returned to Germany ,he depicted his country after the war ("die Ratten" ) without indulgence.Another movie made in France ("L'Affaire Nina B") dealt with Nazi criminals .

Siomak's genius as a film noir past master can still be felt in "escape...." ,notably in the first scenes where the characters seem to be buried alive in walls of stone and barbed wire.A short prologue with a voice over tells us so: "these men and women have done nothing and they are prisoners..."Don Murray looks too American but it's not a big problem.Since 1989,the Wall of shame has fortunately become a thing of the past.Siomak's movie was one of the first thrusts.