Montgomery Clift

Paul Douglas

Cornell Borchers

Bruni Löbel

O.E. Hasse

Dante V. Morel

John R. Mason

Gail R. Plush

Mack Blevins

William A. Stewart

Alfred L. Freiburger

Gerald Arons

James Wilson

Richard A. Kellogg

Roy R. Steele

George Seaton

Charles G. Clarke

Bobbe Brox

Charles Hisserich

Alfred Newman

J. Russell Spencer

William Perlberg

Lyle R. Wheeler

William Reynolds

Roger Heman Sr.

Robert L. Simpson

Drama

Romance

The Big Lift

20th Century Fox

Germany

United States of America

CinemaSerf

This is certainly an authentic, atmospheric looking depiction of immediately post war Berlin as the erstwhile allies start carving up the spoils of victory. The story focusses on Monty Clift as "Danny", a flight engineer working for the US Air Force as the Soviets blockade all ground-based access to the bombed out city, and his pal Paul Douglas ("Kowalski") and follows their various escapades, loves and adventures during the short period of the siege. The story itself isn't really up to much and Clift always suited me better in a cowboy hat than in a military one - somehow he just isn't a particularly plausible soldier. Douglas, on the other hand has much more of a backstory to get our teeth into - his time in a POW camp has hardened his attitude to the German people (though the odd fling isn't entirely out of the question). There is some good aerial photography and that helps keep it interesting for a while, but at two hours long, the plot and characters start to wear quite thin and it begins to look more like a propaganda exercise for domestic consumption. Still, fans of Clift ought to enjoy it.

English

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