One of the best parts of 'Torn Curtain'
...is the apperance of Professor Gustav Lindt (masterfully portrayed by Ludwig Donath), a tipsy old nincompoop so absorbed in his specialized field of research that he is an easy victim for Professor Armstrong (Paul Newman) and his goals.
I recall nearly wetting myself when he - whilst drinking wine and listening to a Strauss waltz in the faculty club at Leipzig - began chatting of his "sister Elsa [who] was run down by a train in Vienna". :-))
One thing is for sure: Hitchcock and his author knew a lot about old scientists!