Escape from East Berlin

Escape from East Berlin is a 1962 American-West German thriller film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Don Murray, Christine Kaufmann and Werner Klemperer. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art director Dieter Bartels and Ted Haworth. Plot The story takes place in East Berlin soon after the Berlin Wall is built, and is based on an actual escape on January 24, 1962. Kurt Schröder is a chauffeur to East German Major Eckhardt and his seductive wife Heidi, with whom he is having an affair. One night he sees a friend, Günther Jurgens, who works at the garage where Kurt has the Major's car maintained, drive his tow-truck through a gate and get killed trying to escape to the west. Günther's sister, Erika, comes looking for Günther when he doesn't return, and is told that Kurt saw him last night. She then goes to Kurt's house, where he lives with his mother, Uncle Albrecht (a musician), sister Ingeborg and kid brother Helmut within sight of the wall. Erika is intent on escaping to West Berlin, thinking that her brother made it. Kurt, reasonably satisfied with his life, has no intention of risking his life to attempt an escape. Erika then attempts to escape over the wall but Kurt catches her as she tries to crawl under the barbed wire, and they pretend to be lovers to hide her intentions from suspicious guards. Kurt then hides her in his house. A piece of Erika's clothing is caught in the barbed wire, and the guards track her to the Schröder's house. She hides in a room without a floor, and narrowly escapes the guards after they conclude that she could not be in the room. The Schröders and their neighbors, including a woman named Marga who has a baby and whose husband has already escaped to the west, want to escape East Germany. Kurt comes up with the idea of building a tunnel under the wall, through which they can escape to West Berlin. Although he will mastermind the plan, Kurt has no intention of going with them. They drill through the basement wall using Uncle Albrecht's band as a noise cover when the actual drilling takes place. One member of the family keeps watch while the others work on the tunnel itself. After they start digging the tunnel, they are joined by Walter Brunner, who had his own plan to dig a tunnel. All the while, Kurt is falling in love with Erika, and he eventually summons the courage to tell her that her brother is dead.