The Boys From Brazil

"Shut up, you ugly BITCH!"

The Boys From Brazil is one of a slew of films about escaped Nazis and their diabolical plans to re-conquer the world, that became popular in the late '60s and '70s. Marathon Man is undoubtedly the masterpiece of this subgenre; other notable entries include The Quiller Memorandum, The ODESSA File, and the Grade-Z schlock film They Saved Hitler's Brain. Brazil has an incredible A-list cast with prestige director Franklin J. Schaffner (Patton, Planet of the Apes) at the helm, but it's a pretty flaky enterprise, with a plot outlandish even by '70s standards, and lots of cheese and camp. That certainly doesn't mean it isn't worth watching, however.

A young Jewish man (Steve Guttenberg) in Paraguay comes across an astonishing discovery: a cabal of escaped Nazi war criminals, headed by none other than Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), is meeting for nefarious purposes. Mengele is to set in motion a plot for Nazi domination: he has created 94 Hitler clones, sent them to various families around the world, and is planning to recreate the exact circumstances of the Fuhrer's youth by killing their father at just the right age. Guttenberg's murder (and, well, the killing of 94 random people all over the world) leads to the involvement of Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), a grimly determined free-lance Nazi hunter. It all leads to a showdown in beautiful Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Beth would appreciate that!), involving bloodthirsty dogs, a Hitler kid and two old-school actors wrestling on the carpet like little boys.

The basic problem with The Boys From Brazil is simple. The plot described above is so outlandish and ridiculous that even Lex Luthor and the Joker would dismiss it as insane. No, creating 94 Hitler clones surprisingly isn't the insane part; the idea that every one of them needs to have the exact circumstances of Hitler's youth is insanely illogical, to a degree Michael Bay would never dream of. So, what happens when there are 94 Hitlers running wild? Presumably this doesn't seem to bother Mengele (who is a nutcase, after all), but it seems rather inefficient to me; wouldn't one raised under the right circumstances be enough?

Still, despite the inherent silliness of the premise, the movie manages to be mostly entertaining due to a professional production job. As ridiculous as the story is, Heywood Gould's script is well-constructed and extremely well-paced, Schaffner provides polished, professional directions, and there are some effectivley unsettling moments - particularly the increasingly-creepy Hitler clones. Many bits, like the climactic tiff between Lieberman and Mengele, awkwardly balance cool and ridiculous camp - not necessarily a bad thing, as this can be said of many of my favorite movies.

Gregory Peck is a lot of things, and can be a great actor, but as proven in The Guns of Navarone, he is NOT a tough guy, and shouldn't try to play one - let alone an evil Nazi. Growling and rambling psychotic Nazi slogans in a phony accent that would make Mr. Freeze blush (except his was real), Peck is hilariously campy in his turn; his usual stiff and stentorian style turns to rancid ham. Instead of coming across as the embodiment of evil, he provides one of the funniest performances in film history - though I highly doubt that was intentional. On the other hand, you get to see him wrestle Laurence Olivier and get torn to pieces by Dobermans, which doesn't happen in too many films I'm aware of. And he does get one of the all-time great movie lines here:


"Shut up, you ugly BITCH!"

On the opposite end, Laurence Olivier (oddly the Mengele-esque doctor in Marathon Man), has fun as the Nazi hunter Lieberman (based on Simon Wiesenthal), with a bizarre Yiddish accent that makes him sound like an old lady. Accent aside, Olivier is at least believable in his role, and makes it work through force of will; the movie makes him a determined investigator rather than an elderly action hero, and he (almost) comes off well even in his scuffle with Mengele towards the end.

The movie has a solid supporting cast, though few of them have a lot to do. Third-billed James Mason has a largely superfluous role as an ODESSA officer; his role is pretty much restricted to an occasional argument with Peck. Uta Hagen has a strong scene as an unrepentant SS camp guard. A top-flight assembly of character actors is onhand to support: Michael Gough (The Horse's Mouth), Denholm Elliot (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Walter Gotell (General Gogol from various Bond films), Wolfgang Preiss (The Train). Pre-stardom Steve Guttenberg (Police Academy) and a very young Bruno Ganz (Downfall) have small but important roles. Jeremy Black is genuinely creepy as the various Hitler clones, despite lack of screen time.

The Boys From Brazil is either fun but silly, or silly but fun - such a thin line separates the two concepts. If nothing else, you'll never be able to think of Gregory Peck without giggling again.