Arthur Goldman is a rich Jewish industrialist, living in luxury in a Manhattan high-rise. He banters with his assistant Charlie, often shocking Charlie with his outrageousness and irreverence about aspects of Jewish life. Nonetheless, Charlie is astonished when, one day, Israeli secret agents burst in and arrest Goldman for being not a Jewish businessman but a Nazi war criminal. Whisked to Israel for trial, Goldman forces his accusers to face not only his presumed guilt--but their own.
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Reviews
Sorry, this movie sucks
It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
I am amazed that none of the reviews of this movie on IMDb mention that this film as written by Robert Shaw is a ro·man à clef (look it up if you do not know) for the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was arrested in 1960 by the Masada and taken to Israel for trial. He was in fact was the "Man in the Glass Booth".Yes Maximillian Schell was off the charts in this performance but the greatest facet to the film is that it replays Eichmann's trial. Eichmann was amazing in his conviction that all of the Final Solution was logical and justified and pedestrian and we should all see this for what it is worth.Yes I was totally annoyed by the Arthur Goldman character in the first half of the film but I was mesmerized by the way this film played out. Schell should have beat Nicholson for the academy award! He is a massively underrated actor (see him in Judgement in Nuremberg and you will agree).
Maximilian Schell gives a brilliant performance in this movie about a Jewish industrialist brought to trial for Nazi war crimes. Schell was justly nominated for an Academy Award. His ending speech about Hitler is amazing. It's a shame that this movie is not more available.To really appreciate Schell's performance and get the full impact of this story, it helps to have an understanding about Hitler and the theories about what motivated his actions and beliefs. Without this background this movie will come across as hopelessly contrived, but taken as an allegory about the dictator, it is extremely powerful. It is curious why Robert Shaw had his name removed from the credits.
Saw this for the first time recently at a International Jewish Film Festival screening at which both the director (the oft overrated and stylistically lacking Arthur Hiller...the Roger Donaldson of his generation) and star (Maximillian Schell) attended and spoke at. My expectations were high, but the film was quite a letdown. Hiller's direction was dull and generic and had the look and feel of a bad 70's television episode, while Schell brings new meaning to the term overacting (his Oscar nomination makes more sense in light of Al Pacino's Oscar win for his incessant mugging in "Scent of Woman").The producer of the film mentioned that writer Robert Shaw (from which the source material came and a famous actor in his own right) asked to have his name taken off the film upon reading the screenplay (and then apparently asked to have it put back on later). Not having read his play, I found much of the dialogue awkward and stilted, although many of the statements and speeches in the film give an introspective view of not just the tragedy of the Holocaust, but also the logical if deluded mindset of those Germans that perpetrated such atrocities. Given the intriguing premise, it would have been interesting to see what the film would have been like in the hands of a better director and with the lead character played a bit more understated and nuanced (a great example would be Ian McKellan's brilliant performance in the otherwise flawed "Apt Pupil"). To be fair, the predominantly older Jewish audience I saw it with enjoyed it, although I would guess more out of obligation to the subject matter then to it's artistic merit. All in all, a fairly mediocre film for its' time with a over-the-top performance by Schell, neither of which have aged well. 5/10
Although I have not seen this film for years it sticks in my mind as one of the best, particularly for its type, ie a courtroom dram, with few different scenes, (the other similar movie I liked was Twelve Angry Men.The acting is superb, particularly Max Schell as the Nazi and the twists keep the viewer alert.It is the type of movie that should be shown on TV much more often. It does have a message as well.