Detective story in science fiction guise

Press, 2 April 1979, Page 16

Detective story in science fiction guise

Despite its Nazi and sci-ence-fiction overtones, “The Boys from Brazil” (Savoy) boils down to an extended detective story. What are these nasty, ageing men up to in Paraguay when a former concentration camp doctor, Mengele (Gregory Peck), orders the assassination of 94 men around the world, all aged 65? Ou detective is a Jew, Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), who has been tracking down war criminals since the end of the Second World War. Although he initially dismisses reports of the highlevel Nazi meeting, he begins to smell an Aryan in the woodpile when his informant is killed. This sends the frail but determined Lieberman trotting around such “Waspish” countries as West Germany, Swede", England, the United States and Canada, investigating these mysterious deaths ordered by Mengele. It is only about threequarters of the way through the film that the full, dastardly plot is revealed to the audience which, with a bit of luck, should already be quite a few steps ahead of old Lieberman.

While cloning around somewhere in the South American jungle, Dr Mengelv has managed to initiate the reproduction of 94 ate cells taken from the bod. of Adolf Hitler. The thought of cloning humans is mind boggling enough without the image of 94 little Adolf Schikelgru-

bers running around, possibly sporting toothbrush moustaches. For those who don’t know, and to make the unbelievable seem a little more possible, the audience is treated to a nice but technical explanation of which many may understand only two thirds. But it does sound impressive — therefore, it must be true. We are told that this form of mono-nuclear reproduction (no sex involved) can be done with any cells from the donor’s body — brain,

skin, liver, you take it. The donor does not even have to be alive at the time the cells are taken to make an exact duplicate of him or her. The genetic nucleus is taken from this cell and placed in the unfertilised egg of a female of the species —■ after first destroying the egg’s chromosomes with ultra-violet light, of course. This has been done successfully with frogs and shrimps, where the egg is fertilised externally. The film claims it also has been done with mammals, such as rabbits — and humans are next. So much for the biology lesson. The basic presumptions of the film are preposterous.

However, “The Boys from Brazil” teeters nicely between the ridiculous and the sublime, mainly because of the first class . cast, which obviously has enjoyed making this movie. There also are excellent settings in the countries already mentioned and Mengele’s medical jungle home — much more splendid (but also evil) than anything that Schweitzer ever dreamed of. Olivier shines as the dedicated Nazi hunter — a role diametrically opposed to his

painfully enjoyable performance as a mad Nazi dentist in “Marathon Man.” The upright Peck, whom I cannot remember ever having played such a “heavy” role before, also is enjoyable to watch. As an added fillip, there is James Mason, a senior Nazi leftover who finally tries to stop Mengele’s crazy plot. Olivier and Peck eventually meet at a Pennsylvania farm house for the showdown. They shoot, fight and scratch each other. Great stuff! One delightful addition is their attempts at accents. Peck has a little difficulty covering his unmistakable American accent, but Olivier does very nicely (even funnily) “mit der chermanchewish” bit. Then there is Mason, who seems to have perfected the art ever since he appeared as the Desert Fox.

All in all, “The Boys from Brazil” is an excellently produced film based on a very silly plot. However, a friend informed me the other night that they have managed to clone Elvis Presley,

AT THE CINEMA

Hans Petrovic