The Odessa File

Frederick Forsyth's intricate, well-plotted thrillers have proven attractive to film makers, and surprisingly, most of the adaptations have been successful. Fred Zinnemann's The Day of the Jackal (1973) is an unusually faithful screen adaptation, resulting in a brilliant film that nearly equals the book. The Dogs of War (1980) took significant liberties with the source material, but still produced a highly-entertaining movie. (Granted, I have yet to see The Fourth Protocol (1987).)

Which brings us to The Odessa File (1974), one of a string of Nazi refugee films from the '70s (Marathon Man, The Boys From Brazil). Ronald Neame's serviceable adaptation of Forsyth's second novel has the advantage - and disadvantage - of being based on a not-that-great book, but the screen version only accentuates the novel's flaws while adding new ones.

West Germany, 1963. Journalist Peter Miller (Jon Voight) comes across the diary of a dead Jew, Solomon Tauber, who committed suicide. Miller finds that Tauber had been interned in Riga Concentration Camp during World War II, under the brutal control of SS Captain Eduard Roschman (Maximilian Schell). Miller's search for Roschman brings him to the attention of Israeli spies, who want him to infiltrate ODESSA - a clandestine organization of ex-SS officers - and sabotage their involvement in Egypt's rocket program. Unfortunately, ODESSA quickly sees through Miller's disguise and targets him for elimination.

The Odessa File's intriguing premise is largely unrealized. Some of the fault is Forsyth's, for wedding borderline-superfluous elements (the Israeli-Egyptian subplot, Miller's annoyingly-conventional motivation) to an interesting main story. Neame and screenwriters Kenneth Ross (who scripted Jackal) and George Markstein, however, also share part of the blame. The novel could well have been improved upon, but the film's changes serve merely to remove the story's edges, resulting in a wholly conventional thriller with few surprises and little imagination.

Neame amps up the action and violence, inserting and rearranging scenes to little positive benefit. Miller goes from an intrepid reporter to an unlikely action hero, a reasonable-enough route; more objectionable is reducing his motivation to a personal vendetta. Miller's naggy girlfriend (the pretty Mary Tamm) has a lot of screen time but little to do; a menacing assassin is easily disposed-of. The already tacked-on subplot of ODESSA scientists helping Nasser's rocket program in Egypt, is even more superfluous in the film, scarcely mentioned after the pre-credits scene. Dramatic economy is something this film sorely lacks.

The climax highlights a major issue. Miller and Rouschman's meeting is good enough, but lacks the visceral anger - and unconventional conclusion - of Forsyth's equivalent scene; it's an all-too-typical action finale. Miller's eloquent anti-Nazi speech is excised, bringing a major issue into a sharp relief: the film isn't interested, as Forsyth was, in exploring post-war Germany's ambivalence towards Nazism; it merely wants to use the Nazis as a colorful backdrop. On one level, this is fair enough - not every movie can be deeply political - but in so doing, it neuters one of the things Forsyth did get right, removing depth and imagination for predictable drama.

Neame's direction is competent visually, but on top of its other faults, the film's pace is slow and often disjointed. Some scenes are staged with power, particularly the Holocaust flashbacks, but the movie is often static and only fitfully gripping. Having Andrew Lloyd Webber (!) score is another mistake; his very funky, '70s-sounding score often clashes with the tense and serious atmosphere - particularly an ill-advised Christmas theme song (!?!) sung by Perry Como.

Jon Voight does well, making Miller a credible and compelling protagonist. Maximilian Schell (Cross of Iron) is excellent in what amounts to an extended cameo. Mary Tamm is pretty but ill-used; Maria Schell is excellent in her small part. Derek Jacobi (Day of the Jackal) and Noel Willman (Doctor Zhivago) also feature.

Ultimately, The Odessa File is a major disappointment. The book is no literary masterpiece but has virtues and depth that the film lacks; the result is a bland, by-the-numbers thriller, especially weak compared to other Forsyth adaptations.