Die dritte Dimension (1962)

Die dritte Dimension: Directed by Anatole Litvak. With Sophia Loren, Anthony Perkins, Gig Young, Jean-Pierre Aumont. Lisa Macklin, an Italian woman, has a fight with her American husband Robert in a Paris night club. He leaves the next day for a business trip and Lisa says she does not want to see him again. She is with newspaperman Alan Stewart that evening when she learns Robert’s plane has crashed with no survivors. Waking from sedation after the funeral, Lisa finds Robert in their flat, injured but alive. He was thrown clear of the crash by a lucky twist of fate. He now plans to collect the $120,000 insurance he took out at the airport. Once Lisa collects the money and turns it over to him, she will finally be rid of him. She attempts to get advice from Stewart, but he has been replaced by David Barnes. Lisa’s life becomes a tortuous ordeal, at work, at home, faced with a fugitive husband and a growing love for David, who suspects everything. Finally her nightmare concludes when she finally gets the check and meets Robert. As they drive to the Belgian border, he reveals he never intended giving her up to Barnes or anyone else. If she dares go, he will tell the police all and she will be arrested–as accessory to fraud. Lisa realizes she must take the desperate step to freedom. Once taken, there is no turning back.

“Anthony Perkins is not exactly the abusive husband type (especially to an ever-beautiful Sophia Loren). Add to it the plot elements of master-minding an insurance fraud, and the odds of good-natured Perkins pulling it off become immeasurable. The sole survivor of a plane crash, Perkins was fortunate to have taken out a special insurance policy (even if the odds of dying in a crash were 1 in 1,000,000). Good wife Loren, already prepared for widowhood by the u0026quot;newsu0026quot;, gets a good shock when Perkins shows up, pressuring Loren to play along with the hoax to collect the insurance money.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlthough the ending is somewhat of a surprise, the time spent getting there seems like an endless and tiresome walk through the woods, only to arrive at a run down greasy spoon as a reward. Without any frills or glamour, even shot in bu0026amp;w, this is a less than average vehicle for either of the stars. Look for a young Tommy Norden (of TVu0026#39;s u0026quot;Flipperu0026quot; Fame) in a minor role. Otherwise, skip it altogether”