Action!

As much as I never much respected Montgomery Clift’s choices, I can recommend this very interesting picture from 1950 centered around Berliners and American Airmen during the Berlin Airlift. Made in Berlin on location not even a year after the Airlift ended, it also offers a hidden surprise to Berlinophiles and history buffs, a sense of what the city looked like in 1950 which is especially interesting to those who know those same urban features as they are today, and what they were like before the wall came down, leading to the the eventual dissolution of the German Democratic Republic, an event that will see its’ 20th anniversary this fall.

You’ll note in the film the sight of the civilian population clearing rubble, knocking the mortar off of brick, and placing them in neat piles. It’s worth noting that in many parts of the east, some of those pallet-stacks of bricks remained untouched for 35 years.