A GRIPPING PUZZLE OF PURSUIT AND ESCAPE.
In 1963, German reporter Peter Miller (Jon Voight) becomes involved in the search for a brutal concentration camp commander, Roschmann (Maximilian Schell), who disappeared after WWII with help from ODESSA, a network of former SS men. ODESSA may really have existed, and the “Butcher of Riga” certainly did (he was found and arrested a few years after the premiere of the film), but the rest of this story is fiction. The action is compelling, and so is the final confrontation with Roschmann, but other parts of the movie are too slow. Still, locations and the basic premise are interesting enough.
1974-Britain. 128 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Ronald Neame. Novel: Frederick Forsyth. Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber. Song: “Christmas Dream” (Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, André Heller). Cast: Jon Voight (Peter Miller), Maximilian Schell (Eduard Roschmann), Maria Schell (Mrs. Miller), Mary Tamm, Derek Jacobi, Klaus Löwitsch.
