The Odessa File (film)

1974 British-German film by Ronald Neame

The Odessa File

Film poster by Bill Gold
Illustration by Howard Terpning

Directed by| Ronald Neame
Screenplay by| Kenneth Ross
George Markstein
Based on| The Odessa File
by Frederick Forsyth
Produced by| John Woolf
John R. Sloan
Starring| Jon Voight
Mary Tamm
Maximilian Schell
Maria Schell
Cinematography| Oswald Morris
Edited by| Ralph Kemplen
Music by| Andrew Lloyd Webber

Production
companies

John Woolf Productions
Domino Productions
Oceanic Filmproduktion

Distributed by| Columbia Pictures

Release date

* 18 October 1974 (1974-10-18)

Running time

| 128 minutes
Countries| United Kingdom
West Germany
Language| English
Box office| $6 million (North American rentals)[1]

The Odessa File is an 1974 thriller film, adapted from the 1972 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth, about a reporter's investigation of a neo-Nazi political-industrial network in post-Second World War West Germany. The film stars Jon Voight, Mary Tamm, Maximilian Schell and Maria Schell and was directed by Ronald Neame, with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was the only film that the Schell siblings made together.

## Plot[edit]

On 22 November 1963, the day of the John F. Kennedy assassination in Dallas, Peter Miller (Jon Voight), a young freelance reporter in Hamburg, West Germany, pulls his car over to the curb to listen to a radio report of the event. As a result, he happens to be stopped at a traffic signal as an ambulance passes by on a highway.

He follows the ambulance and discovers it is en route to pick up the body of an elderly man who has committed suicide, leaving behind no family. Peter obtains the man's diary and learns the man was Salomon Tauber (Towje Kleiner), a Jewish Holocaust survivor. Salomon's diary details information on his life in the Riga Ghetto during World War II, including the name of the SS officer who ran the camp, Eduard Roschmann (Maximilian Schell). Salomon's diary catalogues all of Roschmann's crimes including the murder of a highly decorated Wehrmacht officer (Oskar Werner) while attempting to flee at the end of the war.

Peter is filled with a determination to hunt Roschmann down and he sets out to meet famed Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, who informs him about ODESSA, a secret organization for former members of the SS which is developing a missile guidance system for Nasserist Egypt. Wiesenthal explains that most of the West Berlin Police are members of ODESSA and not to be trusted. As Peter leaves he is accosted by Israeli Mossad agents who suspect Peter of trying to harm Wiesenthal. Peter manages to convince the men that his true mission is to find and bring Roschmann to justice. The Israelis propose to send Peter deep undercover in the ODESSA. Peter agrees to the mission and with the help of the Israelis, they provide him with a cover identity. Peter is to be a former SS soldier who died recently in a nearby hospital. He does not inform his girlfriend Sigi (Mary Tamm), who was attacked in an attempt to get the whereabouts of Peter.

The Israelis drill Peter on all details of his cover identity in preparation of meeting with ODESSA. Complete with a new cover identity, Peter gains access to the inner ranks of the ODESSA. After getting through his first test he is sent to get a fake passport from a forger who is working for ODESSA. While awaiting his train, Peter blunders by making a call to Sigi to assure her that he is OK. Thinking he is safe, he boards the train. Meanwhile, the ODESSA report back that Peter has made a call and they work out that Peter is not who he says he is. An assassin is dispatched to kill him. Peter meets with the forger Klaus Wenzer (Derek Jacobi) a shy insecure young man living with his mother. Klaus tells Peter to return after the weekend to take passport photos, but then calls him after midnight and tells him to return within the hour.

Suspicious, Peter rings Klaus' home from his hotel and having had no answer is wary, and sees the armed assassin who is waiting for him. Peter sneaks into the house and awakes Klaus' mother: she mistakes him for a priest and begs him to pray for her son. He then tackles the assassin and manages to kill the man. Whilst exploring Klaus' safe he uncovers a book detailing every fake ID Klaus created and detail the real identity of those he created the fake IDs for. Peter takes the file and hides it in a train station locker, later giving the key to Sigi, lest anything should happen to him.

Peter victorious returns to the Israelis and details all he has found but refuses to disclose the location of the file until Roschmann has been apprehended. The Israeli agents reluctantly agree to Peter's demands and he then leaves for Roschmann's home where he finds him living an opulent life as a munitions factory owner. Peter manages to gain access to the mansion and evade his security before confronting Roschmann at gunpoint. Peter reveals Salomon Tauber's diary to Roschmann who attempts to deny everything, claiming Peter has been misled. Peter then discloses to Roschmann, Salomon's description of the murder of a fellow German Wehrmacht officer at the end of the war. Peter goes through the unique details of the cowardly murder and then discloses that the Wehrmacht officer was in fact Peter's father. Roschmann realising he is about to be exposed, panics and goes for his gun forcing Peter to defend himself. Peter returns fire at Roschmann killing the former SS officer who had killed his father.

The detailed ODESSA files obtained by Peter are used to arrest numerous Nazi war criminals including high-ranking members of the police. Later Roschmann's factory mysteriously burns to the ground before any rockets are delivered to Egypt.

## Cast[edit]

* Jon Voight as Peter Miller
* Mary Tamm as Sigi
* Maximilian Schell as Eduard Roschmann
* Maria Schell as Frau Miller
* Derek Jacobi as Klaus Wenzer
* Peter Jeffrey as David Porath
* Klaus Löwitsch as Gustav Mackensen
* Kurt Meisel as Alfred Oster
* Hannes Messemer as General Glücks
* Garfield Morgan as Israeli General
* Shmuel Rodensky as Simon Wiesenthal
* Ernst Schröder as Werner Deilman
* Günter Strack as Kunik
* Noel Willman as Franz Bayer
* Günter Meisner as General Greifer
* Gunnar Möller as Karl Braun
* Til Kiwe as Medal Shop Proprietor
* Cyril Shaps as Tauber's Voice (narrating the diary)
* Oskar Werner as an Wehrmacht Officer (uncredited)
* Nadia Henkowa as Israeli Secretary (uncredited)

## Production[edit]

Filming was done on location in Hamburg, Germany; Salzburg, Austria; Heidelberg, Germany; Munich, Germany; at Pinewood Studios, England; and the Bavaria Studios in Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany. It was filmed with Panavision equipment, produced with Eastmancolor technologies.

The film's title song, "Christmas Dream", written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, was sung by Perry Como and the London Boy Singers.

Simon Wiesenthal served as a technical advisor for the production.[2]

## Reception[edit]

The film premiered at the 1974 San Francisco International Film Festival. The American Nazi Party staged a protest outside the theater but it was mistaken for a promotion of the film.[2]

The film has an aggregated score of 67% from 15 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.[3] Nora Sayre of the New York Times said, "The film makes its points methodically, almost academically. It also drags because there are many unnecessary transitional passages, devoted to moving the characters from one situation to another. Almost every occurrence is predictable."[4]

## References[edit]

1. ^ "All-time Film Rental Champs", Variety, 7 January 1976 p 46
2. ^ a b "The Odessa File". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
3. ^ "The Odessa File - Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
4. ^ Sayre, Nora (19 October 1974). "Neame's 'Odessa File': Thriller About Secret SS". The New York Times.

## External links[edit]

* The Odessa File at IMDb
* The Odessa File at AllMovie
* The Odessa File at the TCM Movie Database
* The Odessa File at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
* The Odessa File at Rotten Tomatoes
* The Odessa File in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Ronald Neame

* Take My Life (1947)
* Golden Salamander (1950)
* The Card (1952)
* The Million Pound Note (1954)
* The Man Who Never Was (1956)
* The Seventh Sin (1957)
* Windom's Way (1957)
* The Horse's Mouth (1958)
* Tunes of Glory (1960)
* Escape from Zahrain (1962)
* I Could Go On Singing (1963)
* The Chalk Garden (1964)
* Mister Moses (1965)
* A Man Could Get Killed (1966)
* Gambit (1966)
* Prudence and the Pill (1968)
* The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
* Scrooge (1970)
* The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
* The Odessa File (1974)
* Meteor (1979)
* Hopscotch (1980)
* First Monday in October (1981)
* Foreign Body (1986)

* v
* t
* e

Works by Frederick Forsyth

Books|

* The Biafra Story (1969)
* The Day of the Jackal (1971)
* The Odessa File (1972)
* The Dogs of War (1974)
* The Shepherd (1975)
* The Devil's Alternative (1979)
* Emeka (1982)
* No Comebacks (1982)
* The Fourth Protocol (1984)
* The Negotiator (1989)
* The Deceiver (1991)
* Great Flying Stories (1991)
* The Fist of God (1994)
* Icon (1996)
* The Phantom of Manhattan (1998)
* The Veteran (2001)
* Avenger (2003)
* The Afghan (2006)
* The Cobra (2010)
* The Kill List (2013)
* The Fox (2018)

Adaptations|

* The Day of the Jackal (1973)
* The Odessa File (1974)
* The Dogs of War (1980)
* The Fourth Protocol (1987)
* Death Has a Bad Reputation (1990)
* The Jackal (1997)
* Icon (2005)
* Avenger (2006)
* The Shepherd (2023)
* The Day of the Jackal (2024)

Screen story|

* Cry of the Innocent (1980) (TV)

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template