The Boys from Brazil

Plot synopsis:
Young, well-intentioned Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) stumbles upon a secret organization of Third Reich war criminals holding clandestine meetings in Paraguay and finds that Dr Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), the infamous Auschwitz doctor, is with them. He phones Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), an aging Nazi hunter living in Vienna, Austria, with this information. A highly skeptical Lieberman tries to brush Kohler's claims aside, telling him that it is already well known that Mengele is living in Paraguay.
Having learned when and where the next meeting to include Mengele is scheduled to occur, Kohler records part of it using a hidden microphone, but is discovered and killed while making another phone call to Lieberman. Before the phone is hung up with Lieberman on the other end, he hears the recorded voice of Mengele ordering a group of ex-Nazis to kill 94 men in different countries, including Austria, West Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Although frail, Lieberman follows Kohler's leads and begins travelling throughout Europe and North America to investigate the suspicious deaths of a number of aging civil servants. He meets several of their widows and is amazed to find an uncanny resemblance in their adopted, black-haired, blue-eyed sons. It is also made clear that, at the time of their deaths, all the civil servants were aged around 65 and had cold, domineering and abusive attitudes towards their adopted sons, while their wives were around 42 and doted on the sons.
Lieberman gains insight from Frieda Maloney (Uta Hagen), an incarcerated former Nazi guard who worked with the adoption agency, before realizing during a meeting with Professor Bruckner (Bruno Ganz), an expert on cloning, the terrible truth behind the Nazi plan: Mengele, in the 1960s, had secluded several surrogate mothers in a Brazilian clinic and fertilised them with ova each carrying a sample of Hitler's DNA preserved since World War II. Ninety-four clones of Hitler had then been born and sent to different parts of the world for adoption.
As Lieberman uncovers more of the plot, Mengele's superiors become more unnerved. After Mengele happens to meet (and then attacks) one of the agents he believes is in Europe implementing his scheme, Mengele's principal contact, Eduard Seibert (James Mason), informs him that the scheme has been aborted before Lieberman can expose it to the authorities. Mengele storms out, pledging that the operation will continue.
Seibert and his men destroy Mengele's jungle estate after killing his guards and servants. Mengele himself, however, has already left, intent on trying to continue his plan. He travels to rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where one of the Hitler clones, Bobby Wheelock (Jeremy Black), lives on a farm with his parents. There he murders the boy's father (John Dehner), a Doberman dog breeder, and waits for Lieberman, who is on his way to the farm to warn Mr. Wheelock of Mengele's intention to kill him.
The instant Lieberman arrives and sees Mengele, he attacks the doctor in a fury. Mengele gains the upper hand and shoots Lieberman. He taunts Lieberman by explaining his plan to return Hitler to the world. Then, with one desperate lunge, Lieberman opens the closet where the Dobermans are held and turns them loose. The dogs corner Mengele and attack him. Bobby arrives home from school and, despite telling from the carnage that something is wrong, calls off the dogs and tries to find out what has happened.
The injured Mengele, having now encountered one of his clones for the first time, tells Bobby how much he admires him, and explains that he is cloned from Hitler. Bobby doubts his story, and is also suspicious of Mengele because the dogs are trained to attack anyone who threatens his family. Lieberman tells Bobby that Mengele has killed his father and urges him to notify the police. Bobby checks the house and finds his dead father in the basement. He rushes back upstairs and sets the vicious dogs on Mengele once again, coldly relishing his bloody death. Bobby then helps Lieberman, but only after Lieberman promises not to tell the police about the incident.
Later, while recovering from his wounds, Lieberman is encouraged by an American Nazi-hunter, David Bennett (John Rubinstein) to expose Mengele's scheme to the world. He asks Lieberman to hand over the list (which Lieberman had taken from Mengele's body while Bobby was calling for an ambulance) identifying the names and whereabouts of the other boys from around the world, so that they can be systematically killed before growing up to become bloody tyrants. Lieberman objects on the grounds that they are mere children, and he burns the list before anyone can read it.

Tags: murder

Review:
A lesser actor would find playing the part of a Nazi Death Doctor, responsible for some of the worst atrocities in human history, a perfect excuse to ham it up and click into the black-hatted, moustache-twisting token villain.The less impressive acting of Steve Guttenberg overacting into a telephone and Jeremy Black with a really strange german accent as Erich Doring.
In the meantime Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) makes the scene and after Kohler's bugging of a secret meeting goes wrong, Lieberman is left with only a thread of a much deeper story, which he sets about to unravel...Even though the plot is fairly well known by now, I will assume some people are not familiar with Ira Levin's book or the film.
In fact the less you know about the plot the better; I think that the dust jacket gives far too much of the story away...Anyway, THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL is a film that toes a very dangerous line, I mean few film makers want to turn a man like Menegele into a camp figure.
A very well done (if quite implausible) fictional account about a post World War II Nazi plot based in Paraguay and led by Josef Mengele that could lead to the establishment of the Fourth Reich.Gregory Peck was well cast as the evil Mengele.
In The Boys From Brazil, Gregory Peck gives a truly mesmerizing performance as the infamous Nazi scientist Josef Mengele.
Is a good thriller, which allows two of the greatest actors there has ever been a chance to ham it up a bit.The plot involves Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) trying to unravel a devious plot by Dr Josef Mangele (Gregory Peck).
The film at times almost slips in to horror with it's certain plot elements, and also containing a horrific confrontation between the two leads at the end.It is not perfect by any means though, as some accents are all over the place and can become a little distracting, and some may find the films idea to unbelievable to take seriously, which i can't say i had a problem with.A good film, with two acting powerhouses, worth a watch just for them.
Based on Ira Levin (Rosemary's baby)'s readable novel , this is an exciting thriller about The Doctor "Joseph Méngüele", (Gregory Peck), known member of the Nazi party German, and cruel medic of the concentration camp of Auschwitz .
A young American, "Barry Kohler" (Steven Guttemberg), contact with the Nazi hunter "Ezra Liebermann" ,( a Simon Wiesental-alike ,magnificently played by Laurence Olivier) , helped by his sister (Lilli Palmer), who begin to investigate and discover the horrible plan of "Méngüele .
In the picture appears some of the best actors of all time, the three principals as Laurence Olivier, James Mason and an awesome Gregory Peck who however overacting in some scenes .
The soundtrack by the classic musician Jerry Goldsmith, is the most part of time lively and nicely like is heard at the beginning and the end of the movie , nevertheless in some moments he composes strangely, perhaps attempting to remind Puccini and other musicians so admired by Mengele, but conveys us a mirth that it is not fitting to the plot.
Laurence Olivier gives possibly the worst performance of his career while Gregory Peck seems to be giving an impersonation of Basil Fawlty , oh gawd even James Mason is bad and that's not something I can say lightly Yeah this is an entertaining movie but if you're making a thriller it's vital that you thrill the audience and not have them rolling in the aisles with something that feels like it's a sequel to THE PRODUCERS .
You're intrigued to follow Olivier's Yiddish caricature around the world as he pieces together the perverse conspiracy, encountering bizarre, scene-stealing characters along the way played by the likes of Rosemary Harris, Uta Hagen (making a rare film appearance), and Bruno Ganz.
And you're intrigued to watch a group of Nazis viciously and spectacularly murder a bunch of old guys for no apparent reason, especially when Peck is hamming it up as their leader.It's a seventies thriller through and through, replete with killer Dobermans and a gloriously Germanic score by Jerry Goldsmith that could legitimately rival the best of Wagner and the Strauss dynasty.
The thing is, explaining how would diffuse the freshness of the plot's surprises, but the point is it's a narrative that, whatever else you can say about it, is not the least bit boring.Indeed the plot brushes comic book superhero proportions, but the diabolical master plan conceived by Gregory Peck's grimacing, straight-backed Nazi death camp doctor Mengele is a refreshment of that sort: In stories of bombastic color and adventure, especially those of godlike stock characters and dictatorial genius antagonists, there are often caveats that make them silly or forgettable rather than engrossing in their suspension of disbelief.
Laurence Olivier stars as Nazi Hunter Ezra Lieberman, who is contacted by a young student(Steve Guttenberg) that he has discovered the whereabouts of infamous Nazi criminal Josef Mengele(Gregory Peck); Ezra dismisses it as a crank call, but when the student turns up murdered, Ezra decides to investigate further, and discovers to his horror that Mengele is alive, and working on a sinister plan to resurrect the Fourth Reich!
Gregory Peck chews the scenery as Nazi-loving doctor who wants a Fourth Reich; growling like a pit bull, his face intentionally pasty-white and his mustache intentionally Hitler-black, Peck's over-the-top performance would easily slip into camp were it not for the off-putting material, which makes all his rotten deeds less intriguing and decidedly more nauseating.
"Boys" is a highly absurd movie, with tasteless bits of business involving the females in the cast, and big introductions to the many supporting characters, each of whom get a turn in the spotlight to try and outact Peck and Olivier.
Like the British Harrington boy's, "Don't you understand English, you a*se." He said that perfectly.Gregory Peck was excellent and it is he who should have been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar and not Olivier.
Cheezy "German" accents, A-list actors (Olivier, Peck, et al), lots of beige clothing, rude pubescent clones with sinister pale blue contacts UND a dash of history all add up to the wonderfully awful "Boys from Brazil."
Characters act in totally unbelievable ways (the famous nazi hunter isn't the least bit interested when somebody tells him about a serious nazi plot, the apparently calm and sophisticated Dr. Mengele nearly strangles somebody to death for no reason) and just about everything else, up to the overly dramatic score, is exaggerated.
An...interesting film, it probably wouldn't be even half as good without impressive performances by (surprise!) Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier.
Olivier plays a Nazi-hunter whose work was responsible for Eichmann's capture follows on a lead from Steve Guttenberg's quickly deceased character, which leads to a plot by Joseph Mengele (in hiding in Paraguay) to repopulate the world with Hitler clones.
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.
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.
I'm not going to spoil the plot of the movie, even though it's almost impossible to approach this movie without knowing "the big surprise", but for those of you who have never seen Boys from Brazil, do yourself a favor and try and watch the movie without prior knowledge and see how long it takes you to figure out the mystery.A great double feature with this movie is The Marathon Man, in which Olivier plays a Nazi war criminal.
"The Boys from Brazil" is very entertaining on several levels if you love history and you love asking those "what if" questions.Even though most of this film is fictional, amazingly enough, a few parts of this film accurately predicted historical/scientific events before they happened.If you can, do yourself a favor and don't read too much of the plot beforehand- when you go into this film not knowing its big reveal, you will understand what an effective thriller it was in its time.
I think the film plays much better when you look at it from the perspective of someone who doesn't know the ending.Gregory Peck's portrayal of Dr. Mengele is gripping, the work of a true master of the acting art.
The film deals with the famous fugitive Nazi Dr. Joseph Mengele and his intent to create the Fourth Reich.The first part is most entertaining and "catching" as Mengele's plan comes to life and director Franklin Schaeffner handles the clues very well so that we finally discover what the "Angel of Death" is up to (it will be easier to find out for those of us interested in Hitler's biographies).
James Mason is there too in a not much demanding role as well as the always reliable Lilli Palmer as Olivier's sister and assistant.For those who enjoy thrillers based on real characters and what they could have been up to in fiction -like me- "The Boys from Brazil" stands a most entertaining and enjoyable product..
Laurence Olivier is brilliant as the aging Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman, and Gregory Peck gives a chilling performance as Dr. Josef Mengele.
The nomination for best actor instead went to Laurence Olivier for playing Ezra Lieberman, a man in hot pursuit of Mengele and other Nazi animal war criminals.
They took the tale of a fugitive nazi doctor and combined it with the demonically messianic tale of a newborn "antichrist." The result, a viewable yet strained thriller about a Jewish nazi hunter and Josef Mengele, whose genetic experiments have produced numerous clones of adolf hitler, which are all now in their early teens and living secretly with families similar to hitler's all across europe and north america.Laurence Olivier, who played the sadistic nazi Szell in marathon man, modifies his german accent to a jewish one, and goes to work as a wise grandfatherlike caricature of Simon Wiesenthal.
Buckner get caught up with his obsession of cloning by somehow morphing, instead of cloning, himself into Adolf Hitler?In 1978 the word gets back to Nazi hunter Ezra Liberman, Laurence Olivier, from a young Lieberman wannabe Barry Kohler, Steve Guttenber, about Dr. Mengela resurfacing in Paraguay.
Gregory Peck worked his butt off, manfully, but getting Mengele right was a bit too tough for him.The file has some good dialogue, too, to recommend it, though the plot is a bit too much, as they say!All in all, watch it for Laurence Olivier, and some good photography.
The almost 2-hour-length contained some protracted and unnecessary scenes as well.Luckily, there are at least good actors even in supporting roles, and Gregory Peck as Dr. Josef Mengele and Laurence Olivier as Ezra Lieberman are pleasant to follow both together and separately.
Saying more about dogs and the plot introduces a spoiler, so I shall say no more on the topic.Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) was among the very worst of the Nazis, the quack doctor who used his medical skills solely for cruel ends in the service of Hitler.
Nazi hunter Ezra Liberman (Laurence Olivier) tries to stop him.The plot is ridiculous--purportedly even Ira Levin said it was just preposterous--but this movie pulls you right in.
We didn't even have to do the whole "Shut up you ugly bitch" line,we'd just start the little Mengele growling "Sh" and howl with laughter.We'd usually do this under our breath when some woman began to drone on...Liebermann's lines counteract the growling with an almost Dr. Zachary Smith (Lost in Space), "Oh the pain, the pain" shtick.The climactic fight scene is uproarious -- starting from the "Did you kill Mr. Wheelock/ no he's making us cocktails" exchange to the Bobby "man, you're weird -- ACTION!" ending.Ah the days of the late 1970s / early 1980s comedies: "Animal House", "Airplane", "Pink Panther" sequels, "Blues Brothers", "American Werewolf in London" and yes the previously mentioned "Omen" (same dogs as TBFB?)series, especially "Omen II" with the raven appearance/truck rolling over the reporter with the mud flaps providing the final insult.They don't make them like they used to and we don't have the superstars any longer -- as Joan Crawford/Dunaway said in "Mommie Dearest": "they gave the bad scripts to me because they knew I could make them work!".
I named "The Boys From Brazil": Franklyn Shaffner's exquisitely captivating thriller, starring two of the most beloved and respected actors of Hollywood's Golden Age: Gregory Peck and Sir Laurence Olivier.
Two classy gentlemen in two roles that couldn't have been more antagonistic: Gregory Peck as the evil Dr. Jozef Mengele and Laurence Oliver as Ezra Lieberman, a veteran Nazi Hunter, whose life is dedicated to honor the memory of the Holocaust's victims by chasing and punishing their executioners.And the first surprise that will probably tease your mind in the first part of the film, concerns the acting department.
While Olivier proves again his tremendous versatility by playing a venerable and inspiring Nazi-hunter after having portrayed the evilly iconic Nazi dentist, Dr. Christian Szell two years before in "Marathon Man", Gregory Peck surprises us through a role which is a 180 degree turn from good old Atticus Finch...
Ira Levin's "The Boys From Brazil" was a tough, mean thriller that worked because it fashioned a preposterous idea – that Dr. Josef Mengele was alive in Paraguay and attempting to clone Hitler - into a setting that seemed to have the pace of real life.
However, this movie turns that fact into a pot-boiler, about how a Nazi hunter named Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) is fed information that Mengele is operating in Paraguay with a plot to kill 94 men around the world in an effort to make multiple clones of Hitler.
Before moving on to their acting though, I will describe the plot of the film.The story starts in Paraguay, late seventies, where Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) discovers that several high ranking Nazi party members are having a meeting about something which seems important.
I was pretty young when I saw this movie for the first time and I have never forgotten it.I even thought Olivier was an old Jewish guy!Amazing performance.I watched it again today for the first time in about 25+ years and I still love it.Mengele,played by Peck,was the most evil man I'd ever seen on film.He is not so scary now but I would disagree with the reviewers comment about a stiff and unconvincing performance.Maybe not as incredible and perfect as Olivier (seriously,who could be?)but still,a tremendous job of portraying a seriously whacked out nazi who nonetheless possesses great charm,charisma and presence.One of my all time favourites..
Obviously, as talented as he is, this role asked him to use talents he didn't have.The movie starts out introducing us to Steve Guttenberg in Paraguay as he follows James Mason, Gregory Peck, and other Nazi war criminals.
SPOILER: Nazi-themed thriller The Boys From Brazil, based on Ira Levin's bestselling novel, features a great central cast, most notably veterans James Mason, Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck.
Very original and innovative script, based on the novel by Ira Levin.The cast is a prestigious one - Sir Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, James Mason - and they all put in great performances.
Great actors Gregory Peck and Sir Laurence Olivier are two excellent reasons to watch this film about Nazis..
Best part is watching two real pros, Gregory Peck as Dr Mengele and Sir Lawrence Olivier as a Nazi-hunter named Lieberman.
The fictional story involves real life German WWII "Angel of Death", Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) having cloned 94 baby boys from the cells of you know who and placed them around the world in environments that closely approximate the real life conditions in which the donor was raised, in the hope of reproducing an exact duplicate.
Student Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg in an excellent early performance) discovers the plot and tries to alert famed Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier).
It may be an outlandish concept, but the whole movie is quite intense once you realize what Mengele and his cronies are planning.*Interestingly, Laurence Olivier had played a Nazi in "Marathon Man" two years earlier..
Twenty years before the birth of the sheep Dolly, the actor Gregory Peck plays the doctor Josef Mengele, Nazi who lived refugee between Brazil and Paraguay carrying out genetic experiences.
Much of the film consists of watching Peck do this evil deed to various families.Somewhere along the way, Laurence Olivier finds out about the Mengele plan from a young reporter.
Olivier's soft-spoken but determined Nazi hunter is a great counterpoint to Peck's charismatic villain and their meeting at the end of the film leads to a climax that is shocking, bloody, and, ultimately, ironic.There are several other very good scenes in the movie.
Laurence Olivier is brilliant as the "Simon Wiesenthal" character, (Lieberman), a Nazi Hunter who makes a living chasing Nazis all over the world.This film discusses the scientific art of cloning as the plot thickens.
If THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL does anything, it proves that GREGORY PECK had his limitations when it came to playing evil characters (as opposed to his Atticus Finch real-life image), and that LAURENCE OLIVIER was indeed a very gifted actor in the right role.
Peck makes a convincing departure from his good guy roles as the sinister Nazi doctor masterminding the Hitler resurrection plot, Olivier putting on an accent is terrific, and Mason does well in the short time he has on screen.