Trying to remember a film

[Snowdog]

Pretty desperate this, but still...

Firstly this wasn't an SF film it was more of a spy caper, probably from the 60's but who knows, since I remember little about it including the title or who was in it. All I remember was one scene.

The male hero was trying to get to the West from behind the Iron Curtain (or possibly fleeing Nazi Germany) with a girl who was either helping him or who he was rescuing. I don't remember that either.

Anyway they stow away on a freighter belonging to the bad guys and when the ship reaches a friendly port they have to find a way off. But the bad guys know or suspect they are on the ship. Our heroes decide to get off my hiding in crates (or sacks or baskets) that are being offloaded in nets by crane. Cut to the crates as they are swinging over. The head goon shouts to the operator to halt, then the crates are sprayed with machine gun fire. They are lowered and opened, but there are no bodies inside. Instead our heroes decided to swim for it while the goons were distracted with the crates and thus get away. That's it. Ring any bells for anyone?

I don't know why I want to track this down except not being able to remember is driving me nuts.

[Foxbat]

Sorry. Can't help you with this..but I know what you mean about a film driving you nuts. I remember many years ago being scared by a B&W film and all I can remember about it is the back of a girl's head as she walks through large double doors (which had small round windows in them....like the old doors you found in hospitals).

I've been searching for this movie for years and - after many false dawns - I'm still no nearer to finding it.

[Snowdog]

I was scared witless when I watched The Cat and the Canary for the first time. The original with Bob Hope. But then I was very young and the idea of secret panels opening and clawed hands reaching for you as you lie in bed...quite terrifying to a child with a vivid imagination.

I love the film now.

Can't help you with your film, it could be anything. The Spiral Staircase? Just a wild stab.

[dustinzgirl]

Do you remember the male actor? Was it Michael Caine?

[iansales]

It's not Hitchcock's Torn Curtain, is it?

[Foxbat]

Can't help you with your film, it could be anything. The Spiral Staircase? Just a wild stab.

Funnily enough, I thought the same. The Spiral Staircase is a cracking movie for its time but it's not the one.

[j. d. worthington]

I think Ian's hit it... it is toward the very end of the film, as I recall (it's been a looong time since I've seen Torn Curtain), as they've made their escape; they end up having swum to shore and sitting wrapped in blankets drying off.... (Knew the scene rang a bell, but couldn't quite place it, or see the faces.....)

Incidentally, that was not the original of The Cat and the Canary. That film had several remakes, all of which blent horror and humor:

IMDb Search

It was originally stage play, as I recall. I've not seen the 1921 version (the genuine original) but I have seen the 1927 film... quite fun, and some of the shots in there are still being imitated to this day (including one in, appropriately, Dead Silence: the corridor with the curtains blowing). It has some genuinely eerie moments, that silent film, and influenced James Whale, who was a great fan of Paul Leni, from what I understand....

The Cat and the Canary (1927)

[Snowdog]

Torn Curtain? Could be, if they escape off a ship. That does sound right. Thanks Ian . I don't remember much about it but I'll look it up now. I like Paul Newman. He was in another film where he had to get off a ship. That was in The Prize which is a film I like a lot.

I didn't know the Bob Hope version of The Cat and the Canary was a remake, just that there was a fairly recent remake which I haven't seen.

[j. d. worthington]

I've not seen the more recent one (or ones?), but I have seen the Bob Hope version... an enjoyable film, definitely....

[iansales]

Torn Curtain is not Hitchcock's best, although the fight scene with the Stasi agent is classic cinema. It opens in the Hotel d'Angleterre in Copenhagen, and I was dead chuffed to see the hotel in person a couple of years ago.

[j. d. worthington]

Yes... I recall that it was only a very few years ago that that scene was allowed to be broadcast unedited on American television, because it is a lengthy and grisly scene... not so much gory (there really is little or no gore) but because Hitchcock decided to show just how difficult it is to truly kill someone when you're not using something like a gun.... Very effective piece of filmmaking, and rather hard to watch, in a way....