Thursday, August 27, 2020

Nazi Manhunt

 

OPERATION EICHMANN-1961-Nazi Adolf Eichmann (Werner Klemperer) is in charge of the “ Final Solution”. His assistant is Hoss (John Banner) who talks about extermination around the dinner table with his wife and children. Eichmann berates the captain of Dachau (Theodore Marcuse) for his killing quota being down. He keeps his wife in Munich while he romances his mistress Anna (Ruta Lee) in Berlin. After orchestrating many atrocities he escapes with Anna. A guy named David (Donald Buka) who'd watched his parents gassed at Auschwitz forms a group that hunts Nazis. They discover Eichmann in Madrid. He flees to Kuwait branded a Jew (a story made up by David's group) but an official (Oscar Beregi) helps him escape. He winds up in Argentina but nobody likes him there. It ends with him captured, being taken back to Israel to stand trial. 

Though obviously produced on a low budget this little docu-drama is very well made by director R.G. Springsteen, who's greatest output was westerns. It's also weird to see Klemperer along side Banner in such serious roles as a few years later they would play comic Nazis in TV's “Hogan's Heroes”. The real Eichmann was executed in 1962.

Thanks for reading!

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