The Big Lift
THE BIG LIFT
The Soviet Union withdraws from what was the Allied government of Berlin, and subsequently blocks off roads and railways into the city, so that the areas controlled by the US, Britain, and France can get supplies only by flights into Tempelhof Airport. At various air bases throughout the world, USAir Force planes and crews are directed to fly to the Frankfurt/Main US air base to help supply West Berlin with food, coal, and other necessities. The film concentrates on two American sergeants who know each other, Danny McCullough (Montgomery Clift), and Hank Kowalski (Paul Douglas) as they fly in from Honolulu.
Hank, Danny and others in their group arrive in Frankfurt/Main air base and are assigned temporary quarters there, and soon begin to shuttle from Frankfurt into Berlin. The procedures in the cockpit and the landing descents into runways in the heart of a built up city are shown in some detail. Danny is in charge of cockpit checklists for the pilots who are flying. Hanks job is related to radar control of the approaches to land. Some sequences explain how the approach control works.
For several months, they are confined to the airport while in Berlin. When Danny and others in the crew arrive in Berlin in what is flight number 100,000 of the airlift, the German authorities in the city welcome them in a special surprise ceremony that involves an extensive honor guard parade, and souvenir gifts presented by a municipal leader, a young boy, and comely war widow Frederika Burkhardt (Cornell Borchers). A newsman covering the event encourages Frederika and Danny to kiss after the presentation, to get good pictures for his story.
Danny is much taken with Frederika, and after a brief chat gets an address for her and the phone number or a neighbor, where he might reach her if he ever gets permission to visit the city.
Motivated by his attraction for Frederika, Danny makes arrangements for public relations activities with the newsman as a way of getting blocks of time to spend in Berlin outside the airport. Meantime, Hank has been assigned ground work at Tempelhof.
The first time Danny gets time in Berlin outside Tempelhof, the camera follows him as he tries to find Frederika, and this gives an excuse for showing scenes of streets and avenues demolished by the war, of people surviving as best they can, and some of the black market activity.
Danny finds Frederika gathering up rubble to recycle bricks with a crew of women working under a male foreman. He can only talk with her briefly to make a date for later. Later, Danny gives out cigarettes, and paint spills on his uniform. Federica takes his clothes to a cleaner, he takes a bath and borrows clothes from the neighbor..
The neighbor with a phone is Stieber (O. E. Hasse). He has a phone because he is a spy for the Soviets, who is assigned the task of counting and identifying the airplanes that land at Tempelhof, since the apartment has a window overlooking the approach path. Stieber explains that he documents the flights for the Soviets, who do not trust the official information given in the newspapers. Since the official information is correct, he purposefully miscounts the planes downward in his reports so the Soviets keep him at his job.
The cleaning shop closes early, as the owner has a family emergency that takes him to the Soviet sector. Frederika and Danny take a subway to find the owner and retrieve a key. On the ride, they cross into the Soviet sector and there is an inspection for contraband. A man carrying dozens of coffee bags under his coat manages to divert the attention of the inspectors by denouncing a fellow passenger for having ONE coffee bag under her hat. After failing to retrieve the uniform, they meet Hank and Gerda (Bruni Lobel) in a restaurant with live entertainment. Hank orders Gerda around, answers for her, while giving his opinion that Germans are too submissive to fathers, and that prepared their psychology to follow Hitler. Danny points out that Hank is treating Gerda just like that. Hank argues back but changes his attitude toward Gerda. He tries to explain democracy to her.
Hank does not hide his anti German attitudes. He demands that Frederika give an account of her background, and she claims that her husband had disappeared after being arrested by the SS, and that her father had been a somewhat outspoken anti Nazi.
While at the restaurant, police come in checking identity papers. Danny doesnt have any, but manages to escape the check by pretending to be one of the entertainment jazz trio, which with him becomes a quartet.
At the restaurant, Hank sees a man at another table and he seems familiar. As the man leaves, he thinks he recognizes him because he has a limp, and follows him out. After following him for some distance through areas deserted because of war damage, he calls him Felix. The man pretends not to speak English but Hank is sure he was the guard that tormented and beat Hank while he was a war prisoner, and exacts revenge by turnabout. Danny, Gerda and Frederika catch up with Hank and try to stop the beating. As Military Police arrive, and Danny runs with Frederika into the Soviet sector by crossing the Brandenburg gate. At the Soviet check point Frederika claims that Danny is her husband. At first they are believed, and they walk on, but other Soviet sector guards catch up and try to arrest them. A crowd gathers, guards from the British and French sectors intervene, the location of the borders is disputed, and in the confusion Frederika and Danny get away.
In the apartment Danny wakes after 3 in the morning. Frederika has electricity from 3 to 5 AM and is ironing his uniform. In their chat, she realizes that Danny loves her.
Danny successfully returns to duty even though his uniform has shrunk. Some time later Hank shows Danny documents showing that Frederika has lied, that her husband had volunteered early into the SS. Frederika admits she lied, but she explains their dire needs to survive, to make him sympathetic. At first, Danny decides to end the relationship, realizing that Frederika is capable of deceit. As he walks away in a street of ruined houses, a section of wall falls down. However, he returns some time later.
As he arrives back to the Frankfurt base, a group of sailors from the Navy are also arriving to help in the airlift. A comical sequence follows in which the Army guys sing the Navy song and vice versa, in good natured rivalry ribbing.
At the base, Danny asks permission to marry a German citizen, and his commanding officer explains the rules and regulations and time frames. Because of the success of the air lift at that point, replacements are coming in, there is a good chance that Danny would be sent back soon, so there is time schedule pressure on his marriage arrangements.
In a comic relief sequence, Hank tries to explain America and its values to Gerda, how people of different nationalities live in New York City peacefully, and how Americans are not persecuted or put in prison for expressing criticism of their government.
We see how the neighbor Stieber has become suspicious because Frederika receives letters mailed from the USA, and opens them first, even though letters from Danny have arrived simultaneously.
Eventually Danny learns he scheduled to leave on the next Friday. Danny talks with Frederika through a fence of the airport compound, and they make arrangements to hurry the paperwork so they can marry before his departure back to the USA.
Complications arise because of weather, as fog forces cancellation of flights. Danny gets on a plane that departs in a short moment of less fog, but then has a burning engine that triggers an emergency landing. This gives an excuse for a sequence that shows how radar radar is used for foggy landings, as Hank and gives the plane landing instructions by radio. They land safely.
Eventually after much frantic running around, Danny finds Frederika in Berlin and makes the appointment to marry. Hank and Gerda are to be the witnesses. At the last minute, Gerda argues with Hank about her rights and throws him out of her apartment, but he changes tone and attitude and she relents. Meantime, Frederika asks an emergency favor from Stieber, to mail an important letter. Stieber, suspicious, opens it and reads how she plans to meet another man, a man she loves, in America. As Hank and Gerda wait at the office where the marriage would take place, Danny arrives first, and then after Frederika show up, Danny comments that maybe she would like to go to St. Louis instead of St. Paul. He has the incriminating letter and lets Hank read it. Danny walks away. Gerda follows him and says she has decided to stay in Germany to help make it better. Hank informs Danny that he has been reassigned to permanent duty, and he now speaks fluent German. They say goodbye.
An airplane departs in the partially cleared fog. A last image shows a bunch of crows walking on the ground. This is a reference to an earlier comment by Hank, that the US Air Force flies even when birds stay on the ground.
