One of the most interesting, if under-explored, questions about art and artists is how, or why, great artists at some point in their lives seem to run out of inspiration. This phenomenon seems more apparent in cinema than in other art forms. Why did Peter Bogdanovich, or Francis Ford Coppola, after creating magnificent films early in their careers, seem to flatten out into mediocrity? To go back even further, the great Preston Sturges wrote a spate of classic, elegant and sublimely witty comedies before he simply dropped out of sight.
Alfred Hitchcock, on the other hand, had such a long and prolific career that it was bound to have a clunker or two, but even so his lesser successes are more interesting than most. Right after the one-two punches of ‘Psycho’ and ‘The Birds’ - the latter perhaps his most humane picture - Hitchcock released two films widely regarded as his weakest. One of them, ‘Torn Curtain,’ was released 58 years ago today, on July 14, 1966. (The other was ‘Topaz’ in 1969.)
Perhaps having trouble navigating the new, freer cinema, Hitchcock took two of the most charismatic stars of the day, Julie Andrews and Paul Newman, and turned them into expository agents mouthing plot points in an atmosphere of Cold War weariness.
But something interesting happens to a piece of art over time. Almost 60 years after its release, ‘Torn Curtain’ can now be watched not as a bit of popular entertainment but as a document of mid-20th century fears and paranoias that go beyond anything Hitchcock and his collaborators ever intended when it was first released. It’s contemporaneous details - see how much of the information passed between people at the beginning of the film is so indicative of spies and secrecy - are fascinating to watch.
The film is also notable for the fact that none other than Sam Peckinpah said that a five-minute scene between Paul Newman’s character and his East German bodyguard showed for the first time in film how hard it was to actually kill a person. It’s the one moment in the film, cinematically at least, that Hitchcock comes to life.