SOURCE: Kauffmann, Stanley. “Suspense and Less Suspense.” New Republic 198, no. 13 (28 March 1988): 26-7.

In the following excerpt, Kauffmann compares Frantic to The House on Carroll Street, arguing that Frantic never convinces the audience to suspend their disbelief.

The House on Carroll Street stands out among recent thrillers chiefly because of its subject. It's not one more variation on the haunted house or the perfect heist or a struggle for domination of the entire universe. It tackles an infrequently regarded, grim subject: the United States' importation of German scientists after World War II, an action carried out with wartime secrecy. This action, spurred by fear of Soviet scientific advances and by our need to keep abreast, or ahead, was one more triumph of practicality over morality. In a word, realpolitik.

The screenplay is by Walter Bernstein, whose long career includes, among other kinds of scripts, a number with political coloration...