The Journey

1956, Hungary. During the Soviet intervention the border is closed and a group of foreign travellers trying to get out of Budapest are held at a hotel. Control is in the hands of a Soviet officer, Surov. He becomes fixated on one of the travellers, a married Englishwoman, and the fate of the whole group hangs on that personal matter. Anatole Litvak made the film only three years after the events. The telling does not draw Surov as a one-dimensional enemy; he is both the man applying the pressure and a man inside his own loneliness. On the other hand the film also carries the Western view of the Cold War years, and it is worth watching with that in mind. Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner take the leads. It is one of Jason Robards's first films.