Directed by:
Franklin J. SchaffnerScreenplay:
Heywood GouldCinematography:
Henri DecaëComposer:
Jerry GoldsmithCast:
Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, Lilli Palmer, Steve Guttenberg, Denholm Elliott, Rosemary Harris, John Dehner, John Rubinstein, Anne Meara (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Alive and hiding in South America, the fiendish Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele (Peck) gathers a group of former colleagues for a horrifying project- he wants to clone Hitler. Barry Kohler (Guttenberg) gets wind of the project and informs famed Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Olivier), but before he can relay the evidence, Kohler is killed. Mengele continues his murderous plot, creating 94 young Hitlers and killing their fathers to simulate the madman's own boyhood. As Mengele moves closer to producing global terror, Lieberman alone must discover the terrifying extent of his plan and stop it. (Artisan Entertainment)
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Reviews (3)
A superb thriller from the 70s with Gregory Peck killing it in the role of the evil Dr Josef Mengele. It’s not very well known, I got to it basically by pure chance, and I was all the more pleasantly surprised thanks to that. First of all, it has a great plot. When it is revealed what the film is really about (fortunately, I hadn’t read any of the comments that spoil it), I was overcome by a very unpleasant, almost unsettling feeling similar to, for instance, The Medusa Touch. I haven’t been so thrilled in a long time.
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A great film, and what struck me most while watching it was that only Laurence Olivier was nominated for an Oscar, while Gregory Peck came up empty. Yet his Mengele is the absolute best example of acting that The Boys from Brazil has to offer. Peck is terrifying. His eyes radiate the right kind of passionate fanaticism, his speech is duly cold most of the time, but you feel that just a little bit is enough and he turns 180 degrees ("Shut up, you ugly bitch!")... One cannot help but think of Henry Fonda, who handled the negative role in the western opus Once Upon a Time in the West just as well. If I continue to list the pros, of course, they have to include Goldsmith's bombastic musical score, Ira Levin's brilliantly adapted screenplay, which is still relevant, if not more relevant, and of course Schaffner's direction, which makes The Boys not a confusing film at all, although the plot constantly jumps from one end of the world to the other. Thumbs up especially for the scenes like "Mengele in the former hospital" and the chilling ending. The cons? There are none.
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I think the book by American writer and playwright Ira Levin is not bad, but its film adaptation did not interest me much and certainly did not make me want to read it. Even the performances didn't particularly impress me. So the only thing I can really commend is the dramatically apt musical score, provided by acclaimed composer Jerry Goldsmith. (40%)
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