Torn Curtain

What looked in its day to be a failure and a disappointment to fans of maestro Alfred Hitchcock now reveals itself to be, if not a key work, then at least the movie that contains one of Hitch's most compelling sequences. "I wanted to show how difficult it is to kill someone," Hitch said, and in a prolonged scene here involving Paul Newman played without dialogue he certainly does. It's the high spot in a remarkably ridiculous Cold War thriller, very much of its period, with phoney locations, phonier (although admittedly deliberate) back projection, and, phoniest of all, the casting of Newman and Julie Andrews (particularly Andrews) as an alleged American defector and his fiancée. If there was any chemistry between the stars, it certainly doesn't show on the screen. Still, Hitchcock fans won't mind, and shouldn't miss it. Everybody else needs a very large pinch of salt.