This is one of the better films of Jacques Tourneur, although far less known than Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie and Out of the Past. The story is set in postwar Germany, where an underground Nazi group attempts to sabotage an Allied conference on unification by kidnapping a prominent German democrat. The original Variety review of Berlin Express noted, accurately, that "the most striking feature of this production is its extraordinary background of war-ravaged Germany. With a documentary eye, this film etches a powerfully grim picture of life amidst the shambles. No newsreel or factual film has equaled this picture in describing the scope and depth of the shellacking which the Reich received. It makes awesome and exciting cinema." (Cinematography is by Lucien Ballard.) Against this background of decay, a sinister world where grotesques and idealists mingle is evoked in Tourneur's direction.