Four in a Jeep

1951

1h 35m

IMDb RATING

5.4/10

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6 Images

Drama

Soviet, British, French and American allies patrol post-war Vienna.

Directors

Leopold Lindtberg

Elizabeth Montagu

Writers

Richard Schweizer(screenplay by)

Stars

Viveca Lindfors

Ralph Meeker

Paulette Dubost

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Top cast

Viveca Lindfors

Franziska Idinger

Ralph Meeker

Sergeant William Long

Paulette Dubost

Germaine Pasture

Hans Putz

Karl Idinger

Yossi Yadin

Sgt. Vassilij Voroshenko (as Yoseph Yodin)

Sgt. Harry Stuart

Sgt. Marcel Pasture

Capt. R. Hammon

Steffi

Hackl

Directors

Leopold Lindtberg

Elizabeth Montagu

Writers

Richard Schweizer(screenplay by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

When "Karl" (Hans Putz) manages to escape from a Soviet prison in post-war Vienna, it falls to the four occupying powers to work together to re-apprehend him. This task ought to be a fairly routine one for them. Briton "Stuart" (Michael Medwin), American "Long" (Ralph Meeker), Frenchman "Pasture" (Albert Dinan) and the Soviet "Voroshenko" (Yossi Yadin) make up a group that regularly patrol the city in their jeep and know their way around. It's also quite astonishing, in their Babel-esque linguistic maelstrom, that these men can hope to accomplish anything at all but they are soon on the trail of this man and his wife "Franziska" (Viveca Lindfors). Quite quickly, they begin to realise that "Karl" is no danger to anyone and that his imprisonment isn't exactly just. Three decide to help him instead but their problem is that "Voroshenko" isn't convinced. He has much less latitude than his cohorts and it soon proves a much more delicate, even dangerous, mission for him. Can they manage to re-unite this couple in freedom? This starts off as quite an effective illustration of the loose confederation of warring tribes scenario that prevailed after the Nazi defeat, but as the characterisations develop it becomes a little meandering and undercooked and the appearance of the rather wooden Lindfors doesn't really help much. The narrative starts to become more of an anti-Russian propaganda exercise and sadly rather predicable thereafter. There is some potent imagery - especially as the beleaguered refugees arrive home at the railway station to an awaiting crowd of hopeful relatives, but the use of each other's language, though useful at the start, starts to grate after an hour. It's an interesting concept and the actors do an adequate enough job, but it becomes just all a little too messy and black and white for me.

Geronimo196706 Feb, 2024