Big, handsome, wicked fun, and more than a bit nutty. A globe-trotting thriller, poised on a razor’s edge between horror & comedy, it makes an unlikely project for square, craftsman-like director Franklin J. Schaffner, but this Ira Levin conspiracy novel really comes off.* It seems a colony of former Nazis living in Paraguay are trying to kickstart a Reich renewal project. Gregory Peck doesn’t have the natural flair to fully inhabit mastermind Dr. Mengele (a sort of Dr. Moreau here, it needs a Christopher Plummer kind of actor), but everyone else is spot on as former & future Nazi killers, research scientists, fading world-famous Nazi hunters and a gaggle of fresh faced little Adolphs. (A creepy Jeremy Black in his only film.) Standouts in the cast include Uta Hagen, Bruno Ganz & Rosemary Harris. James Mason hasn’t much to do as the top Nazi in Paraguay, but Lilli Palmer is striking & effective as assistant to Lawrence Olivier’s aging, Vienna-based Nazi hunter. Olivier, rarely the most natural of film actors, is spectacularly good here. And what a stunning old man he's become, handsome as a study by Michelangelo, he seems to be lit from within by cinematographer Henri Decaë who makes the whole film ravishing to look at. But all the tech credits are immaculate, from Robert Swink’s editing to Jerry Goldsmith’s witty film score, with echoes of waltzes from Strausses Richard & Josef, but with an off-kilter touch out of Ravel’s LA VALSE. And while the end of the film is something of a stretch, it hardly spoils the guilty pleasure.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Famous for ROSEMARY’S BABY and THE STEPFORD WIVES, Levin’s flop play, DR. COOK’S GARDEN/’71, made an exceptional little tv movie with Bing Crosby & Frank Converse in roles played on stage by Burl Ives & Keir Dullea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5fGZuJltzo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD6McxAFyyw
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