[ * possible spoilers * ]I had seen bits & pieces of this high camp classic over the years but finally had a chance to see it from beginning to end on American Movie Classics, and I am dumbstruck. It's a real challenge to describe how truly ridiculous the thing is.
Perhaps the best place to start is with the two leads. I somehow can envision Olivier and Peck getting together after having seen the script, and then, before the start of shooting, making a wager as to who can come up with the worst accent. It's a tossup; Peck's attempt at a German accent was not outdone in hilarity for almost twenty years, when Brad Pitt in "Seven Years in Tibet" seemed to use it a model and outdid himself. Olivier's Jewish accent puts one in mind of a tipsy Harold MacMillan doing an impersonation of David Ben-Gurion (you Gen-Xers will just have to look those names up in Wikipedia).
As far as their acting itself, words fail. Peck's Mengele is so cartoonish - as are all the Nazis here - as to seem to belong in "Hogan's Heroes". Portrayals so stereotyped drain away all terror and move things to the level of comedy. Olivier's Lieberman does not help matters; what is supposed to be a portrait of a dedicated Nazi hunter is so shot through with fleeting attempts at Borsch-belt humor as to come off as a poor impersonation of Myron Cohen (..back to Wikipedia, kids).
The high - or low - point, and the scene which almost makes one believe that humor was the real goal, is the famous party scene, with the ballroom draped in swastikas. Mengele, interrupting Mundt's "second honeymoon" dance with his stunningly ugly hag wife, throttling him to the ground on top of the hors d'oeuvres, and Frau Mundt's asking for a doctor only to have Mengele growl 'I AM a doctor, you stupid bitch', puts one in mind of some of the more classic moments from the Three Stooges. Could Mel Brooks have had a hand in this production? Talk about shades of "Springtime for Hitler" ("Maytime for Mengele" ???) !
It is true that what was in 1978 a ridiculously far-fetched plot device, human cloning, has become with the passage of time a frightening possibility. None the less, the idea of a hundred teenaged Xeroxes of Der Fuehrer set to "go off" around the Globe is still a concept that seems to have come out of an episode of "Get Smart", as does the whacky script.
How so many big names - Peck & Olivier, James Mason, Denholm Elliot, Uta Hagen, and Lilli Palmer - allowed themselves to be bamboozled into the making of this stinker must remain a mystery. Maybe they were paid VERY well. It must be noted that the elegant Lilli Palmer retains her classic beauty even despite the passing of time (she died 8 years after this flick; thank goodness she was able to to redeem herself by making a few more movies).
Having said all these nasty things, it must be conceded that the production values here are extremely high; the movie looks great. Everything is beautifully shot, setting off the on-location scenes wonderfully. But to have all this technical skill employed in the service of such silliness is like the mountain laboring and bringing forth a mouse, as they say.
The movie is worth watching, I suppose, but only if viewed as camp.
Perhaps the best place to start is with the two leads. I somehow can envision Olivier and Peck getting together after having seen the script, and then, before the start of shooting, making a wager as to who can come up with the worst accent. It's a tossup; Peck's attempt at a German accent was not outdone in hilarity for almost twenty years, when Brad Pitt in "Seven Years in Tibet" seemed to use it a model and outdid himself. Olivier's Jewish accent puts one in mind of a tipsy Harold MacMillan doing an impersonation of David Ben-Gurion (you Gen-Xers will just have to look those names up in Wikipedia).
As far as their acting itself, words fail. Peck's Mengele is so cartoonish - as are all the Nazis here - as to seem to belong in "Hogan's Heroes". Portrayals so stereotyped drain away all terror and move things to the level of comedy. Olivier's Lieberman does not help matters; what is supposed to be a portrait of a dedicated Nazi hunter is so shot through with fleeting attempts at Borsch-belt humor as to come off as a poor impersonation of Myron Cohen (..back to Wikipedia, kids).
The high - or low - point, and the scene which almost makes one believe that humor was the real goal, is the famous party scene, with the ballroom draped in swastikas. Mengele, interrupting Mundt's "second honeymoon" dance with his stunningly ugly hag wife, throttling him to the ground on top of the hors d'oeuvres, and Frau Mundt's asking for a doctor only to have Mengele growl 'I AM a doctor, you stupid bitch', puts one in mind of some of the more classic moments from the Three Stooges. Could Mel Brooks have had a hand in this production? Talk about shades of "Springtime for Hitler" ("Maytime for Mengele" ???) !
It is true that what was in 1978 a ridiculously far-fetched plot device, human cloning, has become with the passage of time a frightening possibility. None the less, the idea of a hundred teenaged Xeroxes of Der Fuehrer set to "go off" around the Globe is still a concept that seems to have come out of an episode of "Get Smart", as does the whacky script.
How so many big names - Peck & Olivier, James Mason, Denholm Elliot, Uta Hagen, and Lilli Palmer - allowed themselves to be bamboozled into the making of this stinker must remain a mystery. Maybe they were paid VERY well. It must be noted that the elegant Lilli Palmer retains her classic beauty even despite the passing of time (she died 8 years after this flick; thank goodness she was able to to redeem herself by making a few more movies).
Having said all these nasty things, it must be conceded that the production values here are extremely high; the movie looks great. Everything is beautifully shot, setting off the on-location scenes wonderfully. But to have all this technical skill employed in the service of such silliness is like the mountain laboring and bringing forth a mouse, as they say.
The movie is worth watching, I suppose, but only if viewed as camp.