Review #894: 'The Boys from Brazil' (1978)

The re-birth of the Third Reich has proven to be an oddly desirable topic for many an inspiring schlock-maker. Titles such as They Saved Hitler's Brain (1968) and Gestapo's Last Orgy (1977) come to mind - movies from a bygone era when cinema-goer's would travel to like their local drive-in or tune into their TV sets late at night and expect to see something cheap, awful, but most likely hilarious. The Boys from Brazil, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet of the Apes (1968), Patton (1970)), is an event movie with a budget and an A-list cast that plots a Jewish Nazi-hunter against a tyrannical doctor hell-bent on creating a new fuhrer.

Such a mainstream movie could be labelled as insensitive for creating outlandish fiction out of such a terrible event and for profiteering from it, but The Boys from Brazil, although handsomely filmed and mostly well-performed, is pure pantomime exploitation. This is evident from the moment we meet Ezra Lieberman, an ageing Austrian Nazi hunter played by Laurence Olivier, who delivers his lines in an accent so ludicrous he could be voicing a Disney character. When a conspiracy to assassinate 94 civil servants headed by SS surgeon Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) is brought to Lieberman's attention by young Jewish activist Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) - who quickly vanishes - the old man travels throughout Europe to investigate the potential targets.

Mengele's plot seems like random, senseless madness at first, but it doesn't take long to figure out what's going on. The goal, when revealed, is utterly preposterous but may have been scarily plausible if executed with care. But The Boys from Brazil is often camp, with Peck especially hamming it up and gobbling up the scene whenever he appears. He's the best thing in it - a moustached, maniacal lunk with the complexion of a pint of milk - and has greatest line of the film when he shouts "shut up, you ugly bitch!" to the unfortunate wife of an SS officer. It all leads to fisticuffs at the climax between the frail Lieberman and the bulky Mengele, which despite the extraordinary levels of gore and the presence of three angry Doberman, is unintentionally hilarious. Weird, absurd, but undeniably fun, this is pure nazisploitation polished by a talented director.


Directed by: Franklin J. Schaffner
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, James Mason, Lilli Palmer, Steve Guttenberg, Denholm Elliott, Bruno Ganz
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie