The Boys from Brazil (1978)

UK, USA, 1978
123m
35mm film, colour, 1.85:1
stereo, English

A British/American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. Production began on 31 October 1977.

Plot Summary

Young Nazi hunter Barry Kohler stumbles upon a group of former SS officers, led by the notorious Dr Josef Mengele, in Paraguay. Kohler enlists the help of a more experienced Nazi hunter, Ezra Lieberman, who uncovers a horrific plot to clone Adolf Hitler and establish the Fourth Reich.

Credits

Crew
Directed by: Franklin J. Schaffner
ITC, Lew Grade, Producers Circle
Executive Producers: Robert Fryer
Produced by: Stanley O’Toole, Martin Richards
Written by: Heywood Gould
Novel: Ira Levin
Director of Photography: Henri Decae
Editor: Robert E. Swink
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith
Sound Recordist: Derek Ball
Costume Designer: Anthony Mendleson
Make-up: Bill Lodge, Christopher Tucker
Hair Stylist: Ronnie Cogan, Patrick Grant
Special Effects: Roy Whybrow
Production Designer: Gil Parrondo

Cast
Gregory Peck (Dr Josef Mengele)
Laurence Olivier (Ezra Lieberman)
James Mason (Eduard Seibert)
Lilli Palmer (Esther Lieberman)
Uta Hagen (Frieda Maloney)
Steven Guttenberg (Barry Kohler)
Denholm Elliott (Sidney Beynon)
Rosemary Harris (Mrs Doring)
John Dehner (Henry Wheelock)
John Rubinstein (David Bennett)
Anne Meara (Mrs Curry)
Jeremy Black (Jack Curry/Simon Harrington/Erich Doring/Bobby Wheelock)
Bruno Ganz (Professor Bruckner)
Walter Gotell (Mundt)
David Hurst (Strasser)

Alternative Titles

Brasilian pojat – Finland
Ces garçons qui venaient du Brésil – France
Chlopcy z Brazylii – Poland
Os Comandos da Morte – Portugal
Los niños de Brasil – Argentina
Los niños del Brasil – Spain
Pojkarna från Brasilien – Sweden
I ragazzi venuti dal Brasile – Italy

Press

The Boys from Brazil was generally well received when it was first released. Variety‘s Har called it “a gripping, suspenseful drama for nearly all of its two hours” but complained that it “lets go at the end and falls into a heap.” He praises Schaffner’s direction which “builds the threatening menace well” but was less complimentary about the ending which, he claims, “loses the whole point of Levin’s book.” ¹Variety 27 September 1978 p.20 Schaffner was also singled out by Cinefantastique editor Frederick S. Clarke who wrote that the director made the story “not only believable, but gripping.”

Richard Combs, writing in Monthly Film Bulletin, suggested that “visually, Franklin Schaffner has probably not had a more ideal subject than The Boys from Brazil for some time” and called it “Ira Levin’s most enjoyable concoction since Rosemary’s Baby.” He was less convinced by the performances: “given a Mengele portrayed as a stiffly made-up, monstrous machine, Gregory Peck scarcely has to act at all; Laurence Olivier, on the other hand, employs a dismaying barrage of ‘Jewish’ tics and mannerisms (this double casting against type may have been an effort to avoid confusion with Olivier’s own Mengele-inspired character in Marathon Man).” ²Monthly Film Bulletin vol.46 no.543 (April 1979) pp.68-69

References

Periodicals

• American Film: a Journal of the Film and Television Arts vol.3 no.9 (July/August 1978) pp.12-15, 52-54 – article (Lord Laurence Olivier as Nazi hunter by Bernard Drew)
• Cinefantastique vol.8 no.1 (Winter 1978) p.22 – review (by Frederick S. Clarke)
• DGA Magazine vol.22 no.4 (1997) pp.70-71 – review (Blood and guts, and action by Ted Elrick)
• Film and History vol.32 no.2 (2002 pp.38-47 – illustrated article
• Film Review vol.28 (July 1978) p.35 – review
• Films and Filming vol.25 no.5 (February 1979) pp.9-11 – illustrated article
• Films and Filming vol.25 no.7 (April 1979) pp.29-30 – review (by Gordon Gow)
• Films Illustrated vol.8 no.90 (February 1979) pp.214-215 – review (by David castell)
• The Hollywood Reporter vol.253 no.22 (25 September 1978) pp.3, 21 – note
• The Hollywood Reporter vol.285 no.41 (19 February 1985) p.26 – credits, review
• The Listener vol.101 no.2603 (22 March 1979) p.428 – review
• Literature/Film Quarterly vol.7 no.4 (1979) pp.322-324 – article
• Montage no.44 (1979) pp.29-30 – review
• Monthly Film Bulletin vol.46 no.543 (April 1979) pp.68-69 – credits, synopsis, review (by Richard Combs)
• Screen International no.112 (5 November 1977) p.12 – credits
• Screen International no.119 (24 December 1977) p.15 – note
• Screen International no.181 (17 March 1979) p.19 – review
• Sight & Sound vol.10 no.4 (April 2000) p.65 – video review
• Variety 26 October 1977 p.34 – credits (Film production)
• Variety 27 September 1978 p.20 – credits, review (by Har)
• Variety vol.297 no.10 (9 January 1980) p.100 – note (Of 219 film openings in 1979, 170 preemed in West End sites)

Books

• The Ghost of One’s Self: Doppelgangers in Mystery, Horror and Science Fiction Films by Paul Meehan pp.29, 68, 167-168, 211, 213
• Island of Terror: A Book of 60 Great* British SF and Fantasy Movies from 1936-1984 *And not so Great by Keith Topping pp.519-528
• Screen World 1979 volume 30 by John Willis pp.192-193 – illustrated credits