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A deeply disturbing but brilliant work. This had been on my want-to-watch list for ages, mainly for the ensemble made up of Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, Lilli Palmer, Denholm Elliott, Bruno Ganz, Walter Gotell, Rosemary Harris, Michael Gough and Steve Guttenberg. What a cast! And I wasn't disappointed; Peck and Olivier are phenomenal in this film. Olivier plays a Nazi-hunter, tracking down war criminals all over the world including Peck’s Josef Mengele who has organised the mysterious assassinations of 94 civil servants in Europe and North America and to resurrect Hitler himself through cloning. Naturally, it's up to Olivier and his associates to stop him. It's all a bit over the top and occasionally becomes more silly than sinister, particularly the Nazi convention ballroom scene ("Shut up you ugly bitch!") and throughout the film I couldn't understand why the film had an 18 certificate in the UK - until all was revealed in the finale with one of the most realistic, bloody and brutal fight-scenes I've ever seen. Oh, and there's vicious dogs. Peck and Olivier's performances carry the film (Mason's role is comparatively small but he does a good job and Gotell is a laugh as a burnt-out SS commander (or somesuch) who couldn't really care less about Mengele's plan). The film also continues my recent run of movies that contain annoying kids (after Bigger Than Life and 1980's The Island). Furthermore, the scientific explanations are a tad patronising to a modern audience but to a 70's audience the idea of cloning was mind-blowing I guess (and confusing). Peck utterly owns the film (I'm not fond of that expression but that's the only way I can put it). He's brilliant. Have I said that already?
4/5
