I have tried to get through this on two different occasions, and I have to come to the conclusion that in spite of a lot of great location photography, sensational editing and intense dramatic music that this is a missed opportunity failing to be engaging cold war melodrama. The plot falls through so many grates that you'd think you were in Switzerland falling through swiss cheese holes rather than Paris and later Budapest. Dana Andrews is a smug foreign coorespondent (far more jaded than his previous foreign correspondents in Hitchcock's classic of the same name and the later "Berlin Correspondent") who gets into all sorts of trouble trying to find a missing correspondent and leading his boss George Sanders and the humorless Marta Toren who willingly risk their lives for him.

I found myself wondering once again on my third viewing of this what the point is and where they got the idea. Audrey Totter in a small role as a wisecracking correspondent steals every brief moment she's on, making her and the always watchable Sanders (delicious even in a nice guy part) the best parts of the film. "Hogan's Heroes" recurring player Leon Askin is recognizable as one of the heavies. So many minor characters pop in and out of the film's 80 minute running time that you'd need a map of all of Europe to log them all. After three strikes, this isn't just out. It's deported