This film completes Carol Reed's trilogy of mood studies filmed in European capitals: Dublin in 1947 (Odd Man Out); Vienna in 1949 (The Third Man); Berlin in 1953. Drab, humorless, fearful Berlin '53 is the saddest city of the three: the sharp line between East and West cuts off the normal relations that unite a city. As in the two previous films, the central character is a man of broken ideals, a fugitive pursued by the police while he pursues a dream. James Mason plays a lawyer engaged in black market activities, who is used as a pawn by Russian secret police to help stem the flow of refugees from the Eastern sector. Claire Bloom plays an innocent Englishwoman who complicates his life by forcing him to place principle before personal survival.