The rest of the cast is filled with familiar faces from both sides of the Atlantic – James Mason as another Nazi, Steve Guttenberg as the young Jew who finds Mengele, Lilli Palmer as Lieberman’s sister plus Denholm Elliott, Rosemary Harris (now famous as Spider-Man’s Aunt May), Bruno Ganz (who would later play Hitler in Downfall), Michael Gough, and Prunella Scales. It’s a good cast, though only Guttenberg gets much to do and James Mason is criminally wasted (although his German accent is only slightly better than Peck’s).
At his peak Franklin J. Schaffner directed some all-time classics, Planet of the Apes and Patton just to name a couple, but he was coming to the end of his career by the time he made The Boys from Brazil. He does a workmanlike job, managing to take the outlandish plot and dodgy accents and create a film that for all its faults is still strangely compelling.
It’s not the sort of film that’s going to make anyone’s top ten list but I doubt I’m alone in having a soft spot for it. Peck as Mengele makes this essential viewing for curiosity value alone.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments