The Passage

A Basque shepherd smuggling people across the Pyrenees versus a deranged Nazi who scrapes a match against the armpit of a saluting colleague, slices fingers from the French Resistance, and wears a swastika on his underwear (reportedly the actor's idea to lighten up a dull scene). Unfortunately, the potential of the team—Anthony Quinn, James Mason, Gypsy Saruman, and Kay Lenz’s breasts—is criminally wasted by the king of routine mediocrity, J. Lee Thompson. McDowell, dramatically portraying an SS captain whose dream of a thousand-year Reich will last a few years less, mocking avalanche dangers with a hand grenade and shooting in the mountains, summed it up quite accurately: utter rubbish. (07/20/2023)

The more than 100% deranged SS man played by Malcolm McDowell is really something you don't see every day, except that he seemed to come from a completely different movie, and he, along with other strange characters and scenes, came together in The Passage via a huge coincidence. The whole thing is just such a strange, shapeless patchwork that I strongly disliked. Even Anthony Quinn didn't get the opportunity to do something special this time. (06/08/2016)

A splendid action war film with a stellar cast and a truly impressive performance by Malcolm McDowell in the role of an eccentric SS agent whose infinite love for the Third Reich goes so far that he has a swastika embroidered on his briefs. A forgotten cult flick which has its share of flaws (like the foggy camera that’s slightly disturbing at the end) and a good amount of exaggeration, yet is highly enjoyable, captivating, sometimes shockingly brutal, and makes for a solid adventurous guilty pleasure. (11/29/2018)