Torn Curtain (1966) | Presenting Hitchcock Podcast

Gooooood evening. In this month’s episode of Presenting Hitchcock, Cory and Aaron make a risky move behind enemy lines as they discuss Torn Curtain.

Written by: Brian Moore

with uncredited contributions from Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse

Starring: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova, Hansjörg Felmy, Tamara Toumanova, Ludwig Donath, and Wolfgang Kieling

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Trailer:

Our Favourite Trivia:

Director Cameo: Early in the movie sitting in a hotel lobby with a baby on his knee. The music briefly changes to “Funeral March of a Marionette” by Charles Gounod, which is best known as the main theme for Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955).

The idea behind this movie came from the defections of British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean to the Soviet Union in 1951. Alfred Hitchcock was particularly intrigued about Maclean’s life in the Soviet Union, and about Melinda Marling, Maclean’s wife, who followed her husband behind the Iron Curtain a year later with the couple’s three children.

According to the book “Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock,” Hitchcock was unsatisfied with Brian Moore’s screenplay, so he brought in Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall to rewrite it. Their contribution was considerable enough for Hitchcock to feel strongly that they should receive screen credit. However, Moore disputed this, and an adjudication by the Screenwriters Guild gave him sole credit, to Hitchcock’s irritation.

The working relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and Paul Newman was problematic. Newman came from a different generation of actors from the likes of Cary Grant and James Stewart. He questioned Hitchcock about the script and the characterization throughout filming. Hitchcock later said he found Newman’s manner and approach unacceptable and disrespectful. Newman insisted that he meant no disrespect towards Hitchcock, and once said, “I think Hitch and I could have really hit it off, but the script kept getting in the way.” When Newman, a Method actor, consulted Hitchcock about his character’s motivations, Hitchcock replied that Newman’s “motivation is your salary.” Furthermore, as Hitchcock discovered, the expected on-screen chemistry between Newman and Julie Andrews failed to materialize.

Although unexcited about his leading actress, Alfred Hitchcock was always very polite with Julie Andrews. About her experience making this movie, Andrews commented, “I did not have to act in ‘Torn Curtain’. I merely went along for the ride. I don’t feel that the part demanded much of me, other than to look glamorous, which Mr. Hitchcock can always arrange better than anyone. I did have reservations about this film, but I wasn’t agonized by it. The kick of it was working for Hitchcock. That’s what I did it for, and that’s what I got out of it.”

Lila Kedrova was Hitchcock’s favorite amongst the cast. He ate lunch with her several times during filming, and invited her home for dinners with his wife. Although the length of the movie was shortened in post-production, Hitchcock left Countess Kutchiska’s scenes intact in the final movie.

In a 1986 interview, Anthony Perkins claimed that Sir Alfred Hitchcock wanted to cast him as Professor Armstrong, but the studio was adamantly against the idea.

The cab driver is played by Peter Lorre, Jr. However, he is not related to Peter Lorre. The actor was born Eugene Weingand in Germany, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 20. In 1963 he applied to have his name legally changed to Peter Lorie Jr., but Peter Lorre objected, as did American International Pictures, which had Lorre under contract. After a hearing in which the judge denied Weingand’s petition, by deciding he was merely trying to cash in on the name, Weingand was barred from using the name Peter Lorie Jr. without Lorre’s permission. After Lorre’s death a few months later, Weingand began calling himself Peter Lorre Jr. and claimed to be the son of the actor. His appearance in Torn Curtain is uncredited.

In a conversation with François Truffaut, Hitchcock said that he included the fight scene deliberately to show the audience how difficult it can be to kill a man, because several spy thrillers at the time made killing look effortless. He also thought that the performance of Wolfgang Kieling as Gromek was very good.

A scene showing Wolfgang Kieling also playing Gromek’s brother was cut. In it he shows Michael Armstrong, who has just killed Gromek, a picture of Gromek’s three children. It was believed that this would have shifted the audience’s sympathy away from Newman to the dead man. Unfortunately, a close-up of the brother cutting a sausage with a knife similar to the one used in the murder, a characteristically Hitchcockian shot, was also lost.

In the scene where Julie Andrews climbs to the top of the stairs to enter the bookstore, on the wall there is a poster advertising a department store called “Den Permanente.” This store is featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s Topaz.

According to the book “It’s Only a Movie,” Hitchcock said, “There was an ending written which wasn’t used, but I rather liked it. No one agreed with me except my colleague at home (his wife Alma). Everyone told me that you couldn’t have a letdown ending after all that. Paul Newman would have thrown the formula away. After what he has gone through, after everything we have endured with him, he just tosses it. It speaks to the futility of all, and it’s in keeping with the kind of naiveté of the character, who is no professional spy, and who will certainly retire from that nefarious business.

Bernard Herrmann wrote the original score, but Universal Pictures executives convinced Hitchcock that they needed a more upbeat score. Hitchcock and Herrmann had a major disagreement, the score was dropped, and they never worked together again.

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Next up, we’ll be discussing Stage Fright (1950)

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