Movie review: ‘The Boys from Brazil’

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One sub-genre of World War II films is the “what if” efforts. An ever tighter one is sci-fi that becomes real. However, there is one example of both in “The Boys from Brazil,” with its near-sci-fi bent and watch-out-for-Hitler-again story … plus, the sci-fi element basically has come to pass with real cloning. Best yet for “The Boys from Brazil,” it stars two of the biggest names in Hollywood history: Lawrence Olivier and Gregory Peck. So, with an inventive story adapted from a simply terrific and clever novel by Ira Levin, “The Boys from Brazil” will take you on twists and turns into a violent and bloody climax. It is sometimes confused with “Marathon Man” as both starred Lawrence Olivier and focuses on post-war Nazis, but the two are equals and stand head and shoulders among most in the genre despite being a bit deficient in some of its production.

‘The Boys from Brazil’
(1978; 125 minutes; rated R; directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring Gregory Peck, Lawrence Olivier and James Mason)

POWERFUL WORK FROM PECK, OLIVIER

(NOTE: I reorganized and expanded this review with a little more opinion, some more trivia and the updating of links on Jan. 9, 2018. I again expanded the review on July 1, 2020.)

If you want an Oscar-laden cast, look no further than the top three actors in “The Boys from Brazil.” Lawrence Olivier has one statue plus 10 nominations (including for this one) and two honorary Oscars; Gregory Peck has one statue plus four nominations and a humanitarian Oscar award; and James Mason has three nominations.

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Whew! This isn’t just some Arnold Schwarzenegger or Steven Seagal shoot-’em-up or beat-’em-up! “The Boys from Brazil” is a tight, intelligent and drama-building thriller that ends up with history’s worst Nazi doctor squaring off against the world’s most honored Nazi hunter. And it works!

An adaptation of Ira Levin’s bestseller of the same name, “The Boys from Brazil” is about Olivier playing “Ezra Lieberman” (obviously based on the real-life Simon Wiesenthal), who gets called in when a young man in South America says he has found the most infamous wanted Nazi of them all: “Dr. Josef Mengele,” played with verve and gusto by Peck. (Note: I used quote marks around a real person’s name because it is a character in the film.) In the film, it’s 30 years after the war’s end and world still was asking, “What happened to these Nazis?” Well, a surprise was on the way!

The young man is killed, but manages to leave enough information to set Olivier on the trail. He soon is flummoxed by a series of strange clues: From the deaths of late-middle aged men; boys who look startlingly similar; and the interest of the former Nazis in them. It all comes together as a cloning plot by Peck – the boys are clones, but need psychological nudges in life to emulate the upbringing of the worst Nazi of them all … Adolf Hitler. One of the nudges is the killing of their fathers at a specific age and so the Nazis have sent assassins out in North America and Europe to kill the 83 men who are “fathers” of the boys.

Ultimately Peck and Olivier wind up converging in … Pennsylvania! The two elderly men fight it out (here’s where they could have used Arnie and Seagal) with some attack dogs tossed in. The good guys win, the bad guy is dog chow and everyone lives to be very much disturbed ever after.

Here’s a look at our headliners:

  • I didn’t believe I’d see a Peck film where he was better than he was in “The Guns of Navarone” (click here for my review), but this one is nearly the equal. Peck makes you believe he’s a cold-blooded Nazi doctor who does human experiments and has all the suave sophistication of upper-class old Germany. His speech to the Hitler clone at the end is excellent in its pathos. Peck has also been in “To Kill a Mockingbird” (his Oscar), “Roman Holiday” and was truly spectacular in “The Omen” (click here for my review). Peck was 87 when he died in 2003 of cardiac arrest and pneumonia.
  • Olivier, who was the gold standard in acting for five decades beginning with his first Oscar nomination for 1939’s “Wuthering Heights,” plays the somewhat retiring and very frail “Lieberman” (Olivier was just over surgery when he filmed this one) but has a core of steel and considerable intelligence as showcased in his scene interrogating a jailed Nazi and he does manage to physically survive his encounter with Peck. Olivier was also outstanding in such classics as “Spartacus” and “Sleuth.” Olivier died at 82 in 1989 of renal failure.

“The Boys from Brazil” is sometimes confused with another post-WWII film about a Mengele-like character: “Marathon Man.” In this one, Olivier is the one-time Nazi dentist and does nasty things to Dustin Hoffman. Olivier was nominated for an Oscar as best actor for “The Boys from Brazil” and a nomination for supporting actor in “Marathon Man.”

Moving on …

  • The third actor at the top of the marquee here is James Mason, who plays former Nazi officer “Eduard Seibert” and who is an organizer of post-war Nazi activities in South America. Mason is at his most elegant and smooth persona here as he tries unsuccessfully to reign in Olivier after the cloning plot is blown. Mason was also in “North by Northwest,” “Lolita” and the very scary TV movie “Salem’s Lot” (click here for my review). He was also in varied films such as Sam Peckinpah’s WWII effort “Cross of Iron” (click here for my review) and he was about the only one acting in the stinkbomb of an action-adventure thriller “ffolkes” with Roger Moore (click here for my review). Mason died at 75 in 1984 of a heart attack.
  • The best supporting acting performance is by Uta Hagen, who plays former Nazi “Frieda Maloney” and is in jail facing war crimes charges for atrocities against Jews. She is so convincing – arrogant, dismissive to Jewish people and high-handed – that you really believe she is a war criminal. Hagen should have received an Oscar nomination for her brief performance here. Hagen was also in “Reversal of Fortune” and “The Other.” She died at 84 in 2004.
  • Jeremy Black plays four of the cloned boys in “The Boys from Brazil.” He’s a bit wooden in his character(s), but gets through the accents from the U.S. (2), U.K. and Germany. I believe he’s wearing blue tinted contact lenses for the film and that contributes to his frozen look. He gets the most screen time as “Bobby Wheelock,” the son of the last victim, and does a good job. Black did this one film and one documentary before moving full-time to stage acting in New York.
  • One-time soap opera actor Walter Gotell plays former Nazi captain and now assassin “Gerhardt Mundt” and does a very convincing job, especially as he talks to an old comrade who has unwittingly become a “father” to one of the boys (he gets pushed off a dam). Gotell was also a Russian in some 007 films (try “The Spy Who Loved Me” – click here for my review – and “From Russia With Love”) as well as being in that classic of classics … “The African Queen” with Humphrey Bogart. I liked him in “Black Sunday” (click here for my review) and he was solid in the World War II classic “The Longest Day” (click here to read about D-Day films). He died at 73 in 1997 of cancer and notched 170 acting credits in a career spanning six decades since the first in 1942.
  • A Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Anne Meara, who was lesser-known half of her marriage to Jerry Stiller, plays “Mrs. Curry” – the adoptive mother of one of the boys and the widow of one of the “fathers” killed by the Nazis. She’s very convincing as she pleads with Olivier not to expose the family’s secret about adopting their son. Meara has also been in “Awakenings” and was nominated for best supporting actress on TV’s “Rhoda.” She died at 85 in 2015.
  • Another Oscar-nominated actor, Rosemary Harris, plays “Frau Doring.” She’s another widow created by the Nazi killing spree. Harris was nominated for “Tom & Viv” and has also been in the “Spider-Man” franchise.
  • An Oscar nominee (not for this one), Denholm Elliott plays “Sidney Beynon,” who is a newsman who helps Olivier with his research. Elliott was nominated for “A Room with a View”) and is most recognized as “Dr. Marcus Brody” in the “Indiana Jones” franchise was well as the butler in the comedy classic “Trading Places” with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd (click here for my review). He died at 70 in 1992 of complications from AIDS, according to IMDb.com.

“The Boys from Brazil” wasn’t close to being in the Top 10 films of 1978 as it had only $19 million at the box office (it would add another $7.6 million in rental fees) on a budget of $12 million, according to Wiki. The No. 1 film was “Grease” with $159.9 million and it was a great year with the superlative “National Lampoon’s Animal House” third with $120 million. Here are the films from that year that I’ve reviewed for my blog:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Steve Guttenberg, who would go on to greater things in “Diner” and the “Police Academy” franchise, is in his third film here as “Barry Kohler,” the Jewish activist who finds Olivier in South American and uncovers the cloning plot. He has a wonderful but very small part and does a great job in his few minutes on screen. He had an even smaller role in his first film (“Rollercoaster” – click here for my review) from the year before “The Boys from Brazil.”
  • After Olivier’s nomination, “The Boys from Brazil” snagged two others: One for film editing and the other for best original music score.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “James Mason reportedly was not interested in the script for ‘The Boys from Brazil,’ until he found out that his friends ‘Greg’ and ‘Larry’ were already signed-up. ‘Greg,’ of course, was Gregory Peck, and ‘Larry’ was Sir Laurence Olivier.”
  • The fight scene between Peck and Olivier was carefully staged due to the fragile condition of Olivier, who had recently had surgery for the removal of kidney stones. I guess that why the production on this scene is a bit cheesy. However, I’ll take it since the movie is so good.
  • George C. Scott was originally cast as “Mengele” but left the project before principal filming began and was replaced by Peck.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Gregory Peck was upset by the extremely negative reactions to his performance. He later said, ‘I felt, Laurence Olivier felt, friends of mine like Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon felt, that I was good in this part. Some critics seem unwilling to accept actors when they break what they think is the mold or the image.’”

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