Sunday, February 16, 2014

February 16 - The Boys From Brazil

Today’s movie is a suspense mystery thriller with a scene set on February 16. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.  

THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL            

Barry Kohler, an independent Nazi-hunter discovers Dr. Josef Mengele is having meetings with other former Nazis in Paraguay. Kohler telephones Ezra Lieberman, a well-known Nazi hunter living in Vienna, but Lieberman brushes him off. Kohler, however manages to bug the next meeting site. Mengele orders the murders of 94 aging civil servants in several different countries. Kohler calls Lieberman again. Kohler is killed, but Lieberman hears enough of the tape recording of the meeting to learn of Mengele’s murder orders.  He decides to investigate. Mengele’s men begin to carry out the killings, and Mengele refuses to delay the killings even when he learns Lieberman knows about the plot. Lieberman visits the families of the murdered civil servants who were 65. He notices that their wives are about aged 42 and their sons all resemble each other. Liberman learns that the dead fathers had abused their sons and the wives doted on the boys.  David Bennet, a friend of Kohler starts helping Lieberman. Lieberman learns the boys were adopted with the aid of a German woman later convicted of war crimes. Lieberman goes to see the woman, Frieda Maloney in jail. He gets the names of some couples she delivered babies to and when she did so. On February 16, 1979 [1:11:14 to 1:12:29] Lieberman figures out that one of the fathers, a Mr. Wheelock will be killed in four days. Dr. Mengele’s superiors in the neo-Nazi organization order the killings ended. They destroy Mengele’s Paraguayan estate, but he has gone to the USA to continue the killings. Lieberman learns that Mengele has cloned Adolf Hitler and is trying to re-create the environmental factors that helped form Hitler by killing the adoptive fathers of the clones at the same age as Hitler’s father died. Mengele travels to Pennsylvania and kills Mr. Wheelock, a Doberman breeder. He waits for Lieberman to show up. Lieberman attacks Mengele, but ends up being held at gunpoint while Mengele taunts him by telling him about his plan to return Hitler to the world. Liberman is shot, but manages to open a closet where Mengele confined Wheelock’s Doberman.  The dogs disarm Mengele. Bobby Wheelock, Hitler’s clone arrives and Mengele tells him he is Hitler’s clone. Bobby searches the house and finds his father’s body. He sets the dogs on Mengele and they kill him. Booby calls an ambulance for Lieberman after he promises not to tell the police Bobby killed Mengele. David Bennet tries, unsuccessfully to get Lieberman to expose Mengele’s plan. Lieberman refuses to give Bennet the list of names so he can kill all the clones.  

An exciting if somewhat dated film. The acting is good, the plot is interesting and the suspense high. However, Fourth Reich plots are old hat today. 

Date given at 1:12:00-05 in the film.

Producers - Martin Richards, Stanley O'Toole and Robert Fryer

Director - Franklin J. Schaffner

Screenplay - Heywood Gould

Runtime – 2 hours 5 minutes

Released – October 5, 1978  

Starring -  

Gregory Peck as Dr. Josef Mengele
Laurence Olivier as Ezra Lieberman
James Mason as Eduard Seibert
Lilli Palmer as Esther Lieberman
Uta Hagen as Frieda Maloney
Steve Guttenberg as Barry Kohler
Denholm Elliott as Sidney Beynon
Rosemary Harris as Frau Doring
John Dehner as Henry Wheelock
John Rubinstein as David Bennett
Anne Meara as Mrs. Curry
Jeremy Black as Jack Curry / Simon Harrington / Erich Doring / Bobby Wheelock
Bruno Ganz as Dr. Bruckner
Walter Gotell as Mundt
David Hurst as Strasser
Wolfgang Preiss as Lofquist
Michael Gough as Mr. Harrington
Joachim Hansen as Fassler
Sky du Mont as Hessen
Carl Duering as Trausteiner
Linda Hayden as Nancy
Richard Marner as Doring
Georg Marischka as Gunther
Günter Meisner as Farnbach
Prunella Scales as Mrs. Harrington
Wolf Kahler as Schwimmer

Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014



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