The film begins in Paraguay, where a resourceful young American Jew, Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg), tracks down several Nazi war criminals living in exile and stumbles across a conference during which infamous Nazi surgeon Dr Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) outlines a plan to murder nearly 100 seemingly innocuous 65-year-old men living throughout the world in order to activate dozens of clones made from Adolf Hitler’s DNA.
Barry transmits his initial findings to ageing Jewish Nazi-hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) who is initially sceptical.
Meanwhile, Mengele discovers Barry’s spying and has the young man killed, initiating a cat-and-mouse game – can Mengele execute his evil scheme before Lieberman brings the notorious “Angel of Death” to justice?
There are moments of suspense here and there, but the shaky story, based on Ira Levin’s best-selling novel, lapses into silliness and the leading performances are so over the top as to border on camp.
Gregory Peck always portrayed virtue by being stiff and condescending. Here, he portrays evil by being stiffer and even more condescending.
Dr Josef Mengele
Gregory Peck Ezra Lieberman
Laurence Olivier Eduard Seibert
James Mason Esther Lieberman
Lilli Palmer Frieda Maloney
Uta Hagen Henry Wheelock
John Dehner Herta Doring
Rosemary Harris Mrs Curry
Anne Meara David Bennett
John Rubinstein Sidney Beynon
Denholm Elliott Barry Kohler
Steve Guttenberg Strasser
David Hurst Jack Curry/Simon Harrington/Erich Doring/Bobby Wheelock
Jeremy Black Professor Bruckner
Bruno Ganz Mundt
Walter Gotell Lofquist
Wolfgang Preiss John Harrington
Michael Gough Fassler
Joachim Hansen Hessen
Guy Dumont Trausteiner
Carl Duering Nancy
Linda Hayden Doring
Richard Marner Gunther
Georg Marischka Farnbach
Günter Meisner Mrs Harrington
Prunella Scales Ismael
Raul Faustino Saldanha Kleist
Jurgen Anderson Stroop
Mervyn Nelson Schmidt
David Brandon Gertrud
Monica Gearson Schwimmer
Wolf Kahler Berthe
Gerti Gordon
Director
Franklin Schaffner
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Barry transmits his initial findings to ageing Jewish Nazi-hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) who is initially sceptical.
There are moments of suspense here and there, but the shaky story, based on Ira Levin’s best-selling novel, lapses into silliness and the leading performances are so over the top as to border on camp.
