Survivor's Film on Holocaust to Be
Among Coming Hollywood Features
By HERBERT G. LUFT
(Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.)
HOLLYWOOD — Nathan
Shapell, a Jewish concentra-
tion camp survivor from Po-
land who came to America
23 years ago, has written a
factual book "Witness to the
Truth" (published by David
McKay Co.), which he plans
to produce as a motion pic-
ture, supplying his own fi-
nancing and having a sea-
soned Hollywood craftsman
to do the screenplay.
* *
Robert Towne, recipient of
an Oscar nomination for "The
Last Detail" and author of
the current hit. "Chinatown,"
is a writer of a different
breed, a professional of the
"today" generation.
We talked with Towne, a
bearded, rugged-looking
young man. in Robert Evans'.
office at Paramount in Bev-
erly Hills where he has his
headquarters while the stu-
dio boss is in New York.
Towne's father, not unlike
Nat Shapell, as a large real
estate holder and home build-
er in Califonia, also active
in Jewish and community af-
fairs.
Towne, himself a native of
Los Angeles. researched the
history of Southern Califor-
nia of the past 40 years and
came up with an expose
which in itself is a "Water-
gate affair" in miniature.
Today, it is almost forgotten
that the desert land of Owens
Valley, caught in the worst
drought of the century. was
bought in small parcels by
some faceless speculators.op-
erating under fictitio us
names. The flow of water
from the reservoir then was
diverted to irrigate the new-
ly acquired "waste" acre-
age and the olive groves in
the San Fernando Valley
started to bloom. This is the
basic plot of "Chinatown," a
story of the great land grab
in southwest California, and
the cover-up of the crime,
corruption which leads to
murder.
Towne said he feels that
the title in itself may lead to
ill-feeling among some
movie-goers because there
are no Chinese involved,
though the pay-off takes place
in Chinatown. Yet, the yarn
deals with a state of mind of
the participants rather than
with a physical location.
In the meantime, Towne
has written and Warren Beat-
ty has produced at Columbia
an even more timely, satir-
ical film, "Shampoo," in
which Beatty portrays a Bev-
erly Hills hairdresser just
before and after the presi-
dential election of 1968.
* *
Zev Braun, son of a Chica-
go industrialist and well-
known Jewish philanthropist,
was here for discussions on
future projects. Braun, who
produced the earliest "west-
ern" on location in the Negev
desert, "Madron," starring
Leslie Caron and Richard
Boone, later built a western
town for the motion picture
production "Sarcoville," near
Petal Tikva.
The first movie made at
Sarcoville was United Art-
ists' "Billy Two Hats," pro-
duced by Norman Jewison
with Gregory Peck and Desi
Arnaz, Jr. and . made in
1972. In the meantime,
Braun's studio has rented out
space for the photography of
a series of American com-
mercials.
Braun has scheduled for
production at Sarcoville this
fall "Blood City" to be co-
produced with Max Rosen-
berg and starring Yul Bryn-
ner. In conjunction with Max-
imilian Schell he contem-
plates for early next year a
picture with John Wayne,
"Candy Man," story of the
1902 Palestine marathon
horse race; and another Is-
raeli "western," "Carambo-
la" starring Jack Palance.
Schell and Braun are also
working on .a "western"
screen adaptation of Hein-
rich von Kleist's classic nov-
el, "Michael Kohlhaas," deal-
ing with what they see as the
tragic flaw in the Germany
make-up, self-righteousness
beyond control, "Kohlaas"
is scheduled for "Sarcoville"
early next year.
* *
Schell, after completing
"The Pedestrian," finished
in Hamburg and in the Brit-
ish studios another anti-Nazi
epic, "The Odessa File,"
from the novel by Frederick
Forsyth. Producer of the
film is John Woolf who also
guided Forsyth's e a r l i e r,
"The Day of the Jackal."
While 'Schell, in "The Pedes-
trian," is the peace-loving
son of a war criminal, he
Portrays a vicious SS cap-
tain in the factual story of
"The Odessa File," Edward
Roschmann, who is still at
large, presumably in the Ar-
gentine.
He will complete the trio
of films dealing with Germa-
ny's past now at Fox Studios
with the Ely Landau produc-
tion of "The Man in the
Glass Booth," only this time
we don't know whether the
man essayed by him is a
Jewish victim or a Nazi mass
murderer posing as a- Jew.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
14—Friday, Sept. 13, 1974
capture on the screen the en-
ergy force deriving from a
person's body. Persoff, him-
self an authority on phychic
phenomenon, portrays t h e
role of a university professor
who is a leading authority on
out-of-body experience — op-
posite Jim Hutton as a re-
vengeful killer; Paul Burke,
Julie Adams and Neville
Brand.
Riviera to Corsica, Paris,
Hamburg and Berlin and
now Israel.
It deals with the kidnap-
ing by Arab terrorists of a
group of five young girls;
daughters of the French own-
er of "Rosebud," a wealthy
German industrialist, a dis-
possessed Greek millionaire.
a British Lord, and a United
Integrity outclasses all oth-
States Senator — the latter er kinds of pull in the long
portrayed by John Lindsay,
run.
the former mayor of New
York.
Robert Mitchum, set to
portray an American intelli-
gence agent assigned to track
down the terrorists, has been
replaced by Preminger after
commencement of photogra-
phy. Much of the footage had
to be reshot with the new
star, 'Peter O'Toole.
Barbra Streisand currently
on the screen in the hilarious
comedy "For Pete's Sake."
produced by Martin Erlich-
man and Stanley Shaniro,
comnleted a sequel to "Fun-
ny Girl," the story of Fanny
Brice, entitled "Funny La-
dy" showing the late great
comedienne's ascent to fame
in the Follies. Billy Rose is
portrayed by James Caan,
while Omar Sharif makes his
return engagement as the
first husband created by him
on the screen in the earlier
movie. "Funny Lady" as well
as "Funny Girl" and Miss
Streisand's "For Pete's Sake"
were made under the banner
of Rastar Pictures—the com-
pany owned by Ray Stark—
who happens to be the son-
in-law of Fanny Brice.
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Nehemia Persoff, the Isra-
eli actor who came to Holly-
wood some 20 years ago and
has portrayed character parts
of every nationality except Is-
raelis, now co-stars in a psy-
chic-horror feature, "The Kir-
lian Force," based on scien-
tific findings of Soviet scien-
tists Semyon and Valentina
Kirlian who invented a pho-
tographic process which can
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Marvin Rothman and John
Harris, with headquarters at
Goldwyn Studios in Holly-
wood, announce the produc-
tion of a feature film dealing
with the life and career of
David Ben-Gurion.
George Jessel serves as co-
producer and will appear in
a cameo role, but the part
of Ben Gurion is still under
negotiation. Menahem Golan,
the Israeli producer of "Ka-
zablan" now living in Holly-
wood, is set to direct.
Golan, who came to the
West Coast with his co-pro-
ducer Yorum Globus in De-
cember to promote the re-
lease of the spectacular mu-
sical and announced at that
time that he was returning
to Israel to prepare a sequel
of "Kazablan" and find East-
ern European locations for
the filming of the I. B. Singer
novel "The Magician of Lub-
lin."
Otto Preminger last May
began filming in Juan-les-
Pins the opening scenes of
his adventure picture, "Rose-
bud," aboard a luxury yacht
given the odd name of "Rose-
bud" for the story. In the
meantime, the motion picture
company moved from the
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