The Odessa File*** (1974, Jon Voight, Maximilian Schell, Maria Schell) – Classic Movie Review 9146

Director Ronald Neame’s 1974 The Odessa File stars a well-cast Jon Voight, who scored a big hit in this Frederick Forsyth thriller about a freelance German reporter called Peter Miller (Voight) on the trail of neo-Nazis in a powerful organisation called ODESSA in 1963.

Maximilian Schell also stars as Eduard Roschmann, a former SS officer who commanded a concentration camp during World War Two, whom Miller investigates and digs out of his hideaway.

Neame’s film is a mixed bag of a thriller-intrigue movie, with some good suspense, a few taut scenes and a complex plot, but also a lot of dull talk, a little boring romance and a flat climax.

However, Voight and Schell help to ensure the file is one you want to open.

Also in the cast are Maria Schell, Mary Tamm, Derek Jacobi, Peter Jeffrey, Noel Willman, Kurt Meisel, Klaus Löwitsch, Hannes Messemer, Garfield Morgan, Shmuel Rodensky, Ernst Schröder, Günter Strack, Martin Brandt, Gunther Meisner and Cyril Shaps.

The production says that there was an organization called ODESSA and that this story is based on real incidents, but, for obvious reasons, names and places have been changed.

The Odessa File is directed by Ronald Neame, runs 128 minutes, is made by Domino and Oceanic, is made by Columbia Pictures and John Woolf Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Kenneth Ross and George Markstein, based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth, is shot in Eastmancolor by Oswald Morris, is produced by John Woolf, is scored by Andrew Lloyd Webber and is designed by Rolf Zehetbauer.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9146

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