Torn Curtain (1966)

At an international congress of physics in Copenhagen, the fiancee (Julie Andrews) of a famous scientist (Paul Newman) mistakenly intercepts a message meant for him and discovers he is defecting to East Germany. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Although Brian Moore (LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE) is the only credited screenwriter, Hitchcock was not happy with Moore's script and Moore disliked working with Hitchcock so other writers were brought in. The film is generally considered one of Hitchcock's worst movies but he's done worse (I won't bother to name them here) and it's biggest fault is that except for two sequences, it's dull and bloated. The two highlights being the murder of Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling) which is as good as anything Hitchcock has done and the bus escape creates genuine tension. Also a major problem is  the casting of the two leads, Newman and Andrews who were arguably the biggest stars in Hollywood at the time. Hitchcock had used big movie stars before (Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Kim Novak etc.) but they were well cast in their parts. Newman and Andrews seem out of place, we're too aware of them being Newman and Andrews. Hitchcock wanted Samantha Eggar but Universal insisted on Andrews. Hitchcock also replaced Bernard Herrmann's excellent score with a merely adequate one by John Addison (TOM JONES). With Lila Kedrova (in the film's best performance), David Opatoshu, Ludwig Donath, Tamara Toumanova, Mort Mills and Carolyn Conwell.