A brilliant physicist (Paul Newman) gets slighted by the American government so he defects to East Germany.  His clueless wife (Julie Andrews) decides to tag along with him and eventually learns that her husband is actually a double agent.  After he murders an enemy agent that is hip to his deceit, the good doctor must get out from behind the Iron Curtain with his wife in tow.

I’m not really a fan of director Alfred Hitchcock’s espionage tinged thrillers, but for me, Torn Curtain wasn’t too bad.  Newman is pretty pimp in this movie and his formidable screen presence helped to hold my interest whenever the pace slowed down (which was often).  Andrews looked quite foxy and her exquisite yumminess served the film well.

It’s pretty amazing that Torn Curtain works as well as it does given the fact that Hitchcock’s heart wasn’t really in it.  The studio forced the two leads on him, made him change the score, and ordered several rewrites of the script.  The film’s centerpiece is the incredible scene where Newman tries to kill the agent in the farmhouse.  It’s a shame that Hitchcock didn’t bring as much energy to the rest of the movie because this scene is some of the best stuff that he ever put on celluloid.  Newman and a homely broad put this guy into several choke holds before breaking off a knife in his neck.  Then the chick whacks him with a shovel and when the guy still doesn’t go down, they stick his head in an oven.  Tight.  But for every scene that works (Newman and Andrews also take a pretty tense bus ride), there’s one that just fizzles (How much suspense can you get out of writing equations on a chalkboard?).    

Look for Hitchcock early on holding a baby.