Director John Schlesinger’s super-charged thriller is about Babe Babington (Dustin Hoffman), a Jewish Columbia University graduate student and marathon runner who, for reasons he cannot understand (his older brother was a secret agent), is pursued and tormented by Szell (Laurence Olivier) – a surviving Nazi war criminal who is also a former dentist.
In fact, Olivier tortures Hoffman in two ways; a) by performing unnecessary cavity work and b) by being a better actor than him.
“Is it safe?” No, it bloody isn’t!
The film is paradoxical – At times generating a tension that is nearly unbearable and then providing moments of intense excitement.
It’s crammed with brutal killings, bone-chilling torture, and triple crosses. Yet it’s all wrapped in a murky and confusing plot that hardly makes much sense.
Still, the final showdown where Babe forces the old man to eat his diamonds before shooting him dead is a blinder.
The screenplay was written by William Goldman from his own best-selling novel, and Hoffman, Olivier, and the rest of the cast are in fine form.
Just one thing . . . Babington could have solved all of his problems in a second. Phone the police, dude!
Babe Babington
Dustin Hoffman Szell
Laurence Olivier Doc Babington
Roy Scheider Janeway
William Devane Elsa
Marthe Keller Professor Biesenthal
Fritz Weaver Karl
Richard Bright Erhard
Marc Lawrence Babe’s Father
Allen Joseph Melendez
Tito Goya Szell’s Brother
Ben Dova Rosenbaum
Lou Gilbert LeClerc
Jacques Marin Chen
James Wing Woo Nicole
Nicole Deslauriers
