Film Review: “The Boys from Brazil”

Hello, website blog.  It’s been a while.  I recently did a little poll on the vivandlarry.com facebook fan page about what visitors most wanted to see on the website.  One of the suggestions was more film reviews, and I thought that was a good idea.

I just finished watching Franklin J. Shaffner’s 1978 film The Boys from Brazil, which Turner Classic Movies aired as part of their month-long salute to the thriller genre.  The film stars Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier in surprising roles.  Surprising for Gregory peck because he plays a ruthless Nazi, Dr. Joseph Mengele, a total departure from Peck’s all American screen persona.  Surprising for Laurence Olivier becuase he had just done a turn as a ruthless Nazi in John Schlessinger’s 1976 film Marathon Man, and in The Boys from Brazil he plays a frail Jewish Nazi hunter.

I have to admit that The Boys from Brazil isn’t a very good movie (so this review may contain some sarcasm and/or mockery).  Disappointing because it has so many big names.  Aside from Olivier and Peck, the cast includes James Mason and Lilli Palmer, and that guy who plays the creepy cart operator who lures the children to Willy Wonka’s factory of wonders in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the one with Gene Wilder, not the Tim Burton movie that I refused to watch because no one beats Gene Wilder as the Candy Man).  I just checked, his name is Günter Meisner.

The story is based on the book of the same title by Ira Levin, in which we follow a Nazi Hunter named Ezra Lieberman as he unfolds a plot by Nazi-on-the-run Joseph Mengele to clone little Hitlers (I know, right?  Huh?).  According to the recent documentary about thrillers that aired on TCM last weekend, the 1970s were prime for making people paranoid about the potential second rise of the Nazis, and Hollywood really took advantage of this.  War criminals on the run and hiding in South America, waiting to come to the US to wreak havoc after they find out “Is it safe?”  Interesting plot point right there.

DVD poster

The Boys from Brazil had a lot of potential.  The story was just weird enough to border it on horror, but unfortunately the cheesiness of the 1970s and the bad acting all around, especially by Jeremy Black who plays the Hitler clones, didn’t help it any.  Plus is had Steve Guttenberg.  Remember him?  Laurence Olivier received his 10th and final Oscar nomination for this film, and while I say “Huzzah to Larry!” it feels like one of those films that he did later in his life because he needed the money to put his younger kids through school.  It also made me really sad to see him looking so gaunt and frail.  It’s like he dropped about 30 lbs between 1976 when he did Marathon Man, and 1978 when he did this film.  There was even a scene at the end when Lieberman and Mengele are having a fighting match and they’re rolling around on the ground trying to strangle one another, and Gregory Peck looked so much meatier than poor Larry.  I hope he used a stunt double.

I want to say that this movie probably would be better with today’s special effects, but then I’m not so sure the story would hold up today because it doesn’t involve vampires or robots.

Sadly, I’d give it a C- rating.

Gregory Peck and a pack of vicious dobermans

Other Roles?

I saw There Will be Blood tonight starring my favorite modern actor and acting God, Daniel Day-Lewis, and it made me think how I bet he could play any part and totally excel at it, so talented is he.  He doesn’t do many films, which sucks, but whenever he does he’s just amazing.

So this got me thinking about Viv, Larry and the roles they may have been offered but had turned down, and which parts I think they would have been great in.

I know Vivien was offered the role of Alicia Huberman in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller, Notorious (my favorite Hitchcock film), back in 1939.  According to Criterion, she had been interested, but by the time the film was made in 1944, Vivien was back in England and the role went to Ingrid Bergman.  I think Ingrid was fantastic, but I would have loved to see Viv in a role like that, especially opposite someone like Cary Grant.  I always thought she and Cary would have been amusing together.

I also think she would have done very well as Cathy in Wuthering Heights.  Merle Oberon did alright, but she wasn’t as dynamic an actress as Vivien was.  Vivien really, I think would have done well in any Victorian part, you know, anything by Jane Austen, the Brontes, any sort of period piece.  She really had the look for it and the delicacy and the charm.  She would have made a great Lizzie Benett in Pride and Prejudice, any version.  I really would have loved to see her do some more comedy, especially after she came to Hollywood because the British pre-war productions she was in really weren’t that good quality.

As for Larry, I know he was offered the role as Don Corleone in Francis Ford Copolla’s The Godfather and he turned it down.  As much as I think Marlon Brando was great in that role I would have been interested to see how Larry played it.  I wish he would have done more modern films when he was younger.  He wore a suit well, and I loved him in Rebecca, I thought he was fabulous.

What roles–classic or modern– do you think they would have excelled at, or maybe played better than the original actors?   I’d love to hear your opinions!