Judith ** (1966, Sophia Loren, Peter Finch, Jack Hawkins) – Classic Movie Review 10,152

Sophia Loren was blacklisted in Arab countries after playing a Jewish woman in Judith (1966).

Director Daniel Mann’s 1966 drama Judith [Conflict] stars Sophia Loren, Peter Finch and Jack Hawkins but does not have much else to recommend it, other than its good heart.

Story writer Lawrence Durrell’s 1948 kibbutz adventures become a dull and muddled film, whose inherent drama and passion never really come to the fore.

Finch is surprisingly unconvincing as a Jewish leader, Aaron Stein, though Loren makes a better impression as concentration camp survivor Judith Auerbach Schiller, the wronged Austrian Jewish woman who comes to Israel to find the Nazi husband who betrayed her, former German Panzer commander General Gustav Schiller (Hans Verner).

Work has gone into it but there is little inspiration or excitement. Mann directs patiently. John Michael Hayes writes conscientiously.

It also features André Morell, Zaharira Harifai, Frank Wolff, Shraga Friedman, Arnoldo Foà, Joseph Gross, Roger Beaumont, Zipora Peled, Peter Burton, Terence Alexander, Daniel Ocko, John Stacy and Roland Bartrop.

Judith is directed by Daniel Mann, runs 109 minutes, is made by Command Productions and Cumulus Productions, is released by Paramount, is written by John Michael Hayes, based on the story by Lawrence Durrell, is shot in Technicolor and widescreen by John Wilcox and Nicolas Roeg (additional photographer, second unit director), is produced by Kurt Unger and Philip M Breen (associate producer), is scored by Sol Kaplan, and is designed by Wilfred Shingleton.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,152

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