Operation Eichmann

B picture studio Allied Artists without use of any big names turned out a fine documentary style film detailing the capture of Adolph Eichmann played here by Werner Klemperer. In fact with John Banner playing Rudolf Hess it takes a bit of getting used to see these Hogan's Heroes regulars playing it serious.

One thing I do have to say. Rudolf Hess who lived to the ripe old age of 94 and was the only prisoner in Spandau prison left of top Nazis when he did pass on did not look anything like John Banner. Knowing that it was a bit disconcerting for me to see him in that role.

Hess was a public face of Nazism. Eichmann who was high up in the SS command was the author of the detailed plans for the annihilation of the Jewish people. He was not a public face and this was part of the reason he avoided capture for 15 years.

I do remember news of his capture when I was a kid. Argentina made all kinds of official diplomatic protests to no avail. Israel wanted, went in and got him and the hell with diplomacy.

In the film part of the reason is Jimmy Baird who grows up to be Donald Buka remembers the man who ordered his family killed. Buka is part of Mossad when he grows up and he makes Eichmann his special project.

Klemperer is the show and the year before he played a most convincing Nazi on trial in Judgment At Nuremberg. See that and see Operation Eichmann and you'll know he was capable of a lot more than Colonel Wilhem Klink.

This is a brutal, compelling, fascinating study of Nazi Adolf Eichmann (played brilliantly by Werner Klemperer) who had the reprehensible idea of killing Jews in gas chambers and later burning them in ovens. It's done so matter-of-factly that it's more horrifying than if the emotions had been punched home (as most filmmakers would do). Some scenes do pack a wallop: like the Jewish singing over the newsreel footage of the camps being liberated. I like this a heck of a lot more than some of the famous anti-Nazi movies out there. What makes it even more interesting is that they don't feel the need (till the end) to put in a 'nice' character to offset Eichmann's (and the other Nazi's) evil. That makes it more powerful than ever. Sure, there are a few flubs (actors blow lines, etc.) but who cares? It's a great film and deserves to be on DVD.

1961's "Operation Eichmann" served as an Allied Artists quickie to cash in on the upcoming trial of Adolf Eichmann (beating Stanley Kramer's big budget "Judgment at Nuremberg" to theaters by 9 months), who was the man in charge of the 'Jewish problem' that eventually led to over 6 million Jews being exterminated at Auschwitz, captured in Argentina in May 1960 (Dr. Josef Mengele was also targeted but proved more elusive). Perhaps his still being fairly unknown accounted for the screenplay's lack of real factual information, the first half most effective in showing Eichmann's ruthless efficiency in conducting mass murder while also punishing prisoners and bribed officials who cause dissention in the ranks. The second half falls down in its lackluster pursuit of the exiled Nazi on the run, moving from Germany to Madrid, Kuwait, and finally Argentina, his own comrades only too eager to be rid of him one way or another. The narrator is a former Auschwitz prisoner who remains a distant outline to the audience, never a fleshed out character they can identify with, unable to compete with Werner Klemperer's dynamic Eichmann, a fully committed performance that produces the surely unintended, lopsided effect of rooting for a brilliant tactician who eluded capture for 15 years (convicted and hanged for his crimes in June 1962). Joining Klemperer in the Nazi ranks is John Banner, both future veterans of HOGAN'S HEROES, a comic depiction of the war that could only have been possible during a decade climaxed by Mel Brooks and his "Springtime for Hitler" number in 1968's "The Producers." The director was outdoor action specialist R.G. Springsteen, whose only qualification for this touchy subject had to be shooting fast on the cheapest sets to strike while the iron was hot. Making his film debut in the unbilled part of Klaus is Eric Braeden, whose best known movie roles in "Colossus: The Forbin Project" and "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" preceded his longtime tenure on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, which commenced in 1980.

The most chilling scene is to see the SS characters of Werner Klemperer and John Banner (Four years before "Hogan's Heroes") matter of factly greeting the Jewish arrivals to the death camp. The contrast between the high comedy of their work together later on belied how easy a shift of perspective of the Third Reich could be achieved. I recommend this film just for this extremely chilling scene alone.

This little known movie deserves to be seen by a wider audience. Werner Klemperer chills the viewer to the bone with his absolutely convincing performance as the architect of the Final Solution.

Made on a low budget, the movie manages to look and feel very authentic in its recreation of the Third Reich, particularly the dreadful sequence at Auschwitz. The fear that that part of the movie made me feel was palpable. Though fairly restrained for its time, the death camp sequence was the stuff of nightmares.

The film is less successful during the last two parts of the story, but Klemperer never lets up in his complete immersion in his role. Highly recommended.