Dirk Bogarde is Dutch in this one. Soon after the War ends, he and some acquaintances try to steal some penicillin for their own use. A guard is killed, Bogarde is captured and on being told that his girlfriend, Mai Zetterling is dead, is persuaded to take the blame for the death. When Miss Zetterling shows up, he realizes he's been fooled, but he needs a confession from one of them, so he escapes and, with the lady's help, winds up in the ruins of Berlin, trying to prove his evidence.
It's always quite watchable, but it's pretty much of a programmer for Bogarde, playing on his romantic image of the moment, always dressed in a sailor's cap, which somehow reappears despite his losing it on several occasions. It seems directed more for efficiency than panache, and cinematographer C.M. Pennington-Richards makes some very obvious choices to block out shots -- there's one in a nightclub later in the movie where he uses some bamboo columns for the purpose.
It's always quite watchable, but it's pretty much of a programmer for Bogarde, playing on his romantic image of the moment, always dressed in a sailor's cap, which somehow reappears despite his losing it on several occasions. It seems directed more for efficiency than panache, and cinematographer C.M. Pennington-Richards makes some very obvious choices to block out shots -- there's one in a nightclub later in the movie where he uses some bamboo columns for the purpose.