Judith

Not the best nor the worst of her movies - though, to be honest it was not a very good film. I was in college and saw it as part of a double feature (with Promise Her Anything - talk about a weird pairing). I liked the movie even though it wasn't really very good.

It has been almost 40 years since I saw it so I really can't remember all the plot but basically it was an updating of the biblical story of Judith. The time period is after WWII and prior to the start of Israel. Judith (Loren) is a displaced refugee who is smuggled to Palestine in a crate via boat. She emerges (FULLY made-up and drop dead beautiful)) from the crate and the plot thickens (or maybe curdles is a better word).Seems her (ex ?) husband is a Nazi, now living in Damascus, wanted by the Israelis. sSo ....

I knew it was stupid (even in my early 20's) but just watching Sophia was enough. The production values seemed good. I even bought the soundtrack. As I said, I'd buy a DVD or tape copy ....

WHD

Big budgeted epic drama with some unbeliavable happenings , set in Palestine in 1948 , the British prepare to end their Mandate, leaving an independent Israel behind. By the late Forties, millions of bewildered and homeless Jews people were on the move-across Europe and the Far East. They were looking for somewhere to live and for many of them that meant a new country. Jews demanded a land of their own. Some Jews on board hoped to sail to Palestine in the first 'exodus ship'. Other Jewish emigrants struggle ashore from island of Cyprus. And a lot of Jewish refugees were at British camps on their way to Palestine. On many of the refugees, by a famine-strike, the conditions were appalling , overcrowded, lacking food and water. This is an exodus that succeeded. In Palestine coming so soon after the holocaust, the homeless come home, but those traumatic echoes of Auschwitz and Buchenwald inflamed Zionist feelings. 1946,1947 and early 1948 were a years in which Zionist terrorist was at its height and Independent Israel still seemed heartbreaks away. The British troops (commanded by Major Jack Hawkins) guard the ships load of Jews in the ports, they were rounded up, to be sent to the camps . Meanwhile, a beautiful woman (Sophia Loren who was blacklisted in the Arab countries due to this Jewesh role) who survived a concentration camp with makeup intact goes undercover to Israel in 1948 to track down her Nazi hubby who had betrayed her. The Israeli defense force, the Haganah (commanded by Peter Finch) , has received intelligence that Arab forces, Syria in particular, are employing former German Panzer commander General Gustav Schiller (Hans Verner) to train them in tank tactics against Israel. Judith Had Only One Desire...To Wield Her Body Like a Whip, To Avenge a Wrong Beyond Words! The story of a woman curved like a weapon - a weapon out to avenge a wrong beyond words, beyond imagining, even perhaps beyond avenging...In the violence of an ancient land she found what she had sought - a pure, personal unholy revenge!.Judith woman of the earth. Judith woman of mystery. Judith woman of excitement . The adventure, the ecstasy, the supreme suspense of a woman wronged beyond words, almost beyond revenge...

An intense wartime drama about a merciless vendetta , set when Israel is surrounded by hostile Arab nations and the Israel military force has to fight to defend itself from aggression. This exciting fim deals essentially with two issues : the relentless Judith/Sophia Loren's searching for her husband to exact revenge as well as to locate their son and about the birth of the Israel State. Acceptable performances from Sophia Loren as an obstinate Israeli woman who was betrayed by her husband and left to die in a concentration camp , Peter Finch as an obstinate Jew general and Jack Hawkins as a commandant of British forces. This is a historical film well written by John Michael Hayes , being based on a story by Lawrence Durrell. Furthermore , a nice support cast, such as : Hans Verner, Frank Wolff, André Morel, Arnoldo Foà , Peter Burton and John Stacy .

In addition , a sensitive and emotive soundtrack by Sol Kaplan , including enjoyable leitmotif . Likewise , evocative cinematography by John Wilcox , filmed in Israel, though a perfect remastering being really necessary because of the film-copy is washed-out .The motion picture was regular was efficiently directed by Daniel Mann , though it results to be some boring and tiring , a bad combination . This one was a prestigious director who made notorious films as " Butterfileld 8" , " The Rose Tattoo" , "Come Back Little Sheba" , "A Dream of Kings" , "I'll cry Tomorrow" . Although Daniel Mann also directed some failed and commercial films such as : "Super Rocky" , "The Avengers" , "Interval" , "Journey into Fear" , among others . Rating : 5.5/10 .

Sexy Sophia is always worth watching (even when saddled with possibly the worst hairstyle of her career), and she is well-supported here by Peter Finch, Jack Hawkins and Hans Verner, but this is one of her lesser films. More than the entire first hour is all setup, and lacks tension. Things get a little more engaging in the last half hour, and the film does close with some well-staged epic-scale battle scenes. So it's not quite the BOMB Leonard Maltin classifies it as. But the ending leaves the story unfinished - were they naively hoping for a "Judith II"? **1/2 out of 4.

I first saw Judith years ago on the big screen when it first came out and was blown away by both Sophia Loren's beauty and her performance as concentration camp survivor Judith Auerbach. Even among the nameless, faceless members of her faith in those camps Judith has a unique story to tell.

For she was in fact the wife of Wehrmacht General Hans Verner who was given a choice by the Nazis his career or his Jewish wife. Verner disowned her and she was thrown into Dachau her daughter taken from her and presumed dead. She lived on hate to survive with only one mission, nail her ex-husband any way she can.

But the Haganah in Palestine in the days just before the formation of Israel want Verner as well. He's rumored to be in Damascus teaching the Arabs the rudiments of tank warfare, Nazi blitzkrieg style. There aren't any good pictures of Verner and there is only one who can really identify him. Hence Loren is smuggled into Palestine from the refugee camps at Cyprus that we all know from Exodus.

She's brought to a Kibbutz on the Syrian border in the care of Haganah commander Peter Finch. He's the one with the mission of getting Verner taken alive to extract information and they need Loren, but Loren has other ideas.

Finch also takes an interest in Sophia personally, who wouldn't. Another who is taken with her is British Major Jack Hawkins in one of his last films before throat cancer claimed his larynx. He's a spit and polish army regular, but he turns out to have a streak of humanity in him that even he didn't realize.

Judith kind of got lost between those other two great films about the founding of Israel, Exodus and Cast A Giant Shadow. It's been not broadcast for several years for inexplicable reasons and that's a pity because Sophia and the whole cast is wonderful.

Judith more than either of the other two films shows a good deal more of life on the Kibbutz. Israeli actress Zaharira Harifai plays the camp doctor and more than anyone else awakens in Loren a feeling that she is among friends and that the new state of Israel will give her a home and she can make a unique contribution to its founding.

Judith is not a film to be missed if it ever sees the light of day again. Demand TCM broadcast it.

Saw this movie many years ago in the theatre and found it most entertaining with lots of drama and action. Had a lousy ending though, with woman seeking to find her son throughout the entire movie, failing in that endeavor. Maybe this is why I have never seen it come to the small screen.