'QB VII’ compelling

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34009, 25 November 1975, Page 20

'QB VII’ compelling

It it does not allow the screening; of commercials to disrupt continuity completely, TV 2 could well score a major success with the television epic, “QB MI," the first part of which was shown last night. Anthony Hopkins, well remembered for his outstanding performance in “War and Peace.” dominated the opening to the four-part film. He plaved the part of Dr Adam Kelno, a Polish doctor who worked during World War II in an infamous concentration camp at Jadwiga in Poland. The television programme, one of the most ambitious ever made, is an adaptation of a novel bv Leon Uris, author of “Exodus.” It is being screened on four consecutive nights to mark TV2’s opening transmission in Wellington. The film takes its title from Queen’s Bench Courtroom VII. of the London Law Courts. It quickly became compelling viewing, with Dr Kelno’s arrival as a refugee at a Free Polish Fighter Wing camp and later his arrival in Britain. The background for the main action of the story was laid in a dramtic confrontation between a representative of the Polish Communist Government and Dr Kelno. He was accused of collaborating with the Germans in surgical experiments aimed ,at exterminating the Jew’s — the dominant theme of the movie. “QB VII” has a cast studded with prominent actors. The only problem with this is that a familiar face and an Irish accent, in the form of Milo O’Shea, show up as a Polish Communist doctor.

Viewers can experience! similar orientation problem; in dissociating other well-, known character actors from; their usual roles —the magistrate in last night’s extradi-' tion hearing scene gave it a “Power Game” and “Mogul" flavour. The film departed from the book tn consigning Dr Kelno to Kuwait rather than Sawarak—where Uris had him working in the steaming jungle among native people.; But then Sawarak would’ not have provided all that

film of nomads on camels, and the incongruity of a European doctor and his wife attempting to build some kind of life in the windswept desert. "QB VII” deals with a subject which is repugnant but which we must never forget. It is a study of the best and the most degrading human behaviour. Provided the film maintains its first-night impact and fewer commercials interrupt it. it should make Iworth-while viewing. —Ken Coates.