Diplomatic Courier (1952)

The Worst Film Ever

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Blistering performances.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

This brilliant thriller by Henry Hathaway takes you for a ride into nightmare complications of cold war terror, spy intrigues and very doubtful women. Patricia Neal is a rich widow who does anything to get Tyrone Power hooked, while Hildegard Knef is in a less favourable position and must arouse overwhelming suspicions, especially as her best friend (and Tyrone Power's) gets murdered in her compartment in the train. Tyrone Power's fierce suspicion of her appears as somewhat unnecessary and unmotivated as almost a flaw in the script, but when you understand the bond between the two men you must accept it, especially since anything he has to do with her brings him into constantly more trouble.The force of the film is the splendid scenery, first on the train and then in Trieste. It is clearly inspired by "The Third Man", many nocturnal Trieste scenes immediately brings memories of "The Third Man" to mind, and there is even cither music. The film is fireworks all the way, and although something like this never could happen in reality (like any James Bond yarn), it still makes sense and is a marvel of composition. The dialogue gunfire will keep you busy all the way.

Tyrone Power works for the US State Department as a courier. His job is to carry documents safely from one point to another. He's sent by the Army on a mysterious trip to Europe to pick something up from an American agent, but the agent is killed and the document at issue disappears. Nobody knows what's up, not the Army, not the State Department, not Power, not even the viewer. The Army then sends him as "bait" for the commies, to Trieste, then part of Jugoslavia, where he meets Patricia Neal, who appears to be a horny aristo, and Hildegard Knef, looking mighty fine but always, well, "gespannt." The problem is that Tyrone Power is not a secret agent, not even a flagrantly obvious agent. As Power describes his job, he's just a reliable State Department "postman." He's reluctant to undertake the task of being the bait and trying to recover the missing goods but he attacks the task earnestly enough, wending his way through a flurry of enigmatic messages and weird characters wearing a dozen wrist watches at once. If you think this description is confusing, wait until you see the movie.The plot may be a little intricate but it's thought provoking too. How would you like to be a diplomatic courier, entrusted with the safekeeping of world-shaking documents? That's one of the thoughts it provokes. I, for one, wouldn't like it because I'm constantly misplacing things. Never mind secret treaties and all that. Sometimes I have trouble remembering where I put my glass eyeball and prosthetic nose. At any rate his job puts him in contact with some curious and unexpected people. There's Charles Bronson as a commie goon, for instance. Then there's Lee Marvin as a baffled military policeman. Karl Malden is a savvy and helpful Master Sergeant. There's a female impersonator who does a dynamite Bette Davis. Then there are the two babes -- Neal and Knef -- and we know at once that ONE of them must be the femme fatale. It's true that Knef is German and that in 1952 Germans still made convenient villains but she has an endearing lisp in her husky voice -- "Pleathe come in, Mithter Kellth." Patricia Neal is an American but she goes around in a constant state of oestrus, practically inviting intromission on a nightclub floor, the slut. Both display facets of the stereotypical villain.The plot engine is the momentous document. No power on earth could force me to reveal which side gets it but I guess it's okay if I proffer the hint that we get it. It's an abstruse narrative whose sense is only picked up gradually but there is plenty of action as well -- fist fights, drugging, attempted drownings, murders, the brandishing of weapons, and wearing white after Labor Day. I enjoyed it, and most people will probably be entertained by it.

This is a superb espionage film set early in the Cold War. Tyrone Power makes the perfect lead, because he always had that quality of looking innocent and puzzled in the trickiest of situations, inevitably summoning plenty of noble resolution while never looking worldly wise about it. In this story, he is a diplomatic courier working for the American State Department. It is his job to carry important diplomatic communications by hand from country to country. He carries them in a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. He wears two watches at once, one for the time at home and one for the time of his destination. However, Power becomes embroiled in a fantastically complicated espionage affair and ends up being used as a pawn in a complex game of intrigue which few can understand. He become involved with two mysterious women, who may or may not be femmes fatale. One is Patricia Neal, who plays a wealthy American widow on the make. She comes across as too good to be true, and for a while we suspect her of overacting. But then her true nature comes out, and we discover how evil she really is. When she starts playing her character's true self, she is terrifying. The other mysterious woman is played by the German actress Hildegard Neff, a mysterious beauty who was at the peak of her American popularity at this time. The film also features Karl Malden in a supporting role, where he is particularly good and shows the promise of his career which was to come. Much of the film is shot in Trieste, which one of the characters describes as being a hotbed of spies of all kinds, like Lisbon during the War. This film has a great deal of postwar atmosphere and suspense and is only one notch down from the more brilliant works of Hitchcock and Carroll Reed. The director was Henry Hathaway, an old pro who could make the telephone book look interesting, The film is full of double agents, betrayal, duplicity, baffling situations, and murder. The film moves at quite a pace and is never dull for a moment. The availability of this classic now on DVD is a welcome addition to the finer cinematic portrayals of early Cold War paranoia and deception. It is interesting historically as well as cinematically, and we get to see a lot of location shots which evoke the era.

As my summary suggests, I was taken aback by H. Neff's moving portrayal as the double agent in post-war Trieste. No gussied-up over emoting from her, just honest, gut-wrenching outpouring of uncontrived emotion delivered with articulation and intensity. When watching her explain herself to Mr. Power and others, I actually felt she must have been an agent in real life at some point. Those tears she shed while she delivered her rationale for her actions were the genuine type, not some Hollywood "tear-squirting" job. Why she never became a more sought-after actor, I'll never know. Maybe she was a little too deep and maybe too foreign for the superficially driven 1950's Hollywood system. Also impressive was Patricia Neal's interpretation of her femme fatale role.Also, I'll take exception to those who criticized T. Power's role. As I see it, he excelled in his performance as a world-weary, cynical Cold War courier. What do people expect? A rerun as a younger, pseudo-swashbuckling Caribbean pirate? I for one am glad he took a less glamorous and more substantive role such as this.On a somewhat sentimental note, it was nice to see some cameo-ish work from Lee Marvin, Michael Ansara and Chuck Buchinski (Bronson!) before their careers took off in the ensuing years. It made the film more fun to watch!