r
24 Friday, Duly 1,1978
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
`The Passage' Depicts Holocaust Tragedy
Israel Concerned Over Lebanon
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Al-
though the visit of Vice
President Walter Mondale
overshadowed all other bus-
iness, the Cabinet was
forced to take up the rapidly
deteriorating situation in
Lebanon where Syrian
forces are shelling Christ-
ians and the Christians, di-
vided into hostile groups,
are fighting each other.
At the close of its weekly
session, which was some-
what shorter than usual,
the Cabinet issued a state-
ment saying that "The gov-
ernment of Israel expresses
its deep concern over the re-
peated attacks on the Chris-
tians and over the great de-
terioration of the situation
in northern Lebanon."
Meanwhile, there were
reports from south Leba-
non, now occupied by the
United Nations Interim
Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL),
that the Palestinian ter-
rorists were bracing for a re-
taliatory attack by Israel for
the bombing in Jerusalem's
Mahane Yehuda market.
Israeli Fly-Over
Warns Syrians
Seven Israeli Jets were
flown over Beirut on
Wednesday as a warming
that Israel will protect
the Christian Lebanese
who are now under at-
tack there by Syrian
"peace keeping" forces.
More than 150 Christians
have died in the Syrian
attacks.
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By HERBERT G. LUFT
HOLLYWOOD — "The
Passage," a motion picture
now completed in the
craggy, snow-topped moun-
tain peaks of the Pyrenees
and in the studios of Nice,
deals with tragic events on
the sideline of World War II
— the escape of fugitives
from Nazi oppression
through Vichy-France, a
territory factually control-
led by the German army,
into Spain and Portugal for
a chance to board a ship for
America.
The picture is based on a
novel- by Bruce Nicolaysen
with - the author supplying
his own screenplay, directed
by J. Lee Thompson and
produced by John Quested
in association with Lester
Goldsmith and Maurice
Binder for the British Hem-
dale Film Group. It tells us
of the perilous passage into
Spain by a scientist (James
Mason), his wife (Patricia
Neal) and two children por-
trayed by Kay Lenz and
Paul Clemens (son of
Eleanor Parker) who are re-
lentlessly pursued by an SS
officer (Malcolm McDowell)
and a wolfpack of his
blackshirted Germans.
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(Copyright 1978, JTA, Inc.)
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Christopher Lee essays
the role of a gypsy leader
who conceals the hunted
family and pays for it with
his life. Anthony Quinn ap-
pears in the central role of a
solitary Basque shepherd
who reluctantly takes the
four through the high
mountains, past the Pont
d'Espagne where the Ger-
man frontier post was
erected on a bridge span-
ning a deep ravine with a
raging river roaring below.
The story is told with ex-
treme realism, with the
equipment flown in by
helicopter because of the in-
accessibility of the terrain.
"The Passage" nar-
rows an immense tragedy
to the nucleus of one
single family. When Fr-
ance was overrun in 1940,
hundreds of thousands of
refugees, Jews from
Germany, Austria,
Czechoslovakia, anti-
fascists from central
Europe and the Low
countries fled by foot and
in small vehicles towards
the Spanish border to es-
cape torture, imprison-
ment and ultimate death.
They were stopped at the
foot of the Pyrenees and
most of them perished in the
camps of St. Cyprie and De
Gurs. My own brother was
among those interned by
the Vichy-French au-
thorities.
Last year, I visited again
his grave and those of his
compatriots, all of them
members of the resistance,
at the cemetery in Perpig-
nan. I drove over to the sea-
site resort of St. Cyprienne,
a majestic range of moun-
tains perpetually covered
by a slight mist.
It is hard to believe that
this is the location where
thousands upon thousands
of brave men died of hunger
and disease while the world
looked on indifferently.
*
"Ashanti," an epic
about modern-day slave
trading in Ghana and in
the Middle East, is now
photographed on actual
and simulated locations
in Kenya, with further
scenes to be shot in Israel
which on the screen will
represent Arab counries.
It is based on a
screenplay by Stephen
Geller and a novel by A.
Vasquez-Figueroa with
29-year-old Georges-
Alain Vuille, heretofore
the largest movie theater
owner in Switzerland,
making his bow as pro-
ducer.
Since the picture went be-
fore the cameras, there have
been a great number of
changes. Director Richard
Sarafian has been replaced
by Richard Fleischer. Wil-
liam Holden portrays the
part of a helicopter pilot
who is killed in an attempt
to save the wife of a British
doctor, thereby taking over
from James Coburn who in-
herited the part from Telly
Savalas.
Omar Sherif, announced
as co-star of the picture,
.withdrew from the cast
when he learned that his
scenes would be shot in Is- Zenda" (with James K.
rael. He now is rejoining the Hackett), will now be re-
cast when the company made in a different vein,
moves to Rome. Holden ar- "Tess" by Roman
rives early this month in Polanski now residing in
Jerusalem to complete his Paris and working in a
role in Israel.
French studio; and
Sharif seems to be wor- "Zenda," the Anthony
ried about reactions in Arab Hope classic with a
countries both in regard to screenplay by Dick Cle-
the contents of the picture ment and Ian La Frenais
in which he is to portray a to be produced by Walter
nomad chief who teams up Mirisch with photo-
with an English doctor graphy to commence in
(Michael Caine) to track mid-July in Vienna with
down a ruthless slave trader Richard Quine directing.
Since strongly-willed
named Suleiman (Peter Us-
tinov) — and as to a per- Roman Polanski always
sonal appearance on the set writes his own scenario, the
in Israel though his compat- sentimental yarn of "Tess of
riot, President Sadat, did the Storm County" will be
just the same in perfect something entirely diffe-
harmony.
rent in the new version, in-
Attacked in the Cairo cidentally the third produc-
press for his portrayal of tion based on the novel.
Fanny Brice's husband in "Zenda" is announced as a
"Funny Girl," Sharif evi- comedy version of the often
dently doesn't want to take filmed adventure yarn with
a new chance to antagonize Peter Sellers portraying a
his former countrymen. (A dual role.
* * *
Hollywood columnist re-
cently claimed that Sharif
Ron Leibman, hereto-
had received threats from fore mostly portrayed
laconic cops on the motion
the PLO.)
Others in the cast of picture screen, turns into a
"Ashanti" are Rex Harri- fast-talking labor organizer
son, Nigerian-born Olu who goes from New York to
Jacobs, Indian actor Zia Alabama to unionize the
Mohyeddin, Swiss film star textile industry in 20th
Jean-Luc Rideau, Black Century Fox's "Norma Rae"
youth Tyrone Jackson and termed a contemporary love
our own television's Beverly story in which he portrays
one of the two men romanti-
Todd.
■ * *
cally involved with a work-
Two silent classics, ing class woman (Sally
first produced more than Field).
The picture, in its en-
60 years ago by Messrs.
Adolph Zukor and Jesse tirety, is being shot in the
L. Lasky, namely "Tess of deep south with Martin Ritt
the Storm County" (the directing from a screenplay
Mary Pickford starrer) by Irving Ravetch and Har-
and "The Prisoner of riet Frank, Jr.
Germany's Genscher in Israel
TEL AVIV (JTA) — West
Germany's Foreign Minis-
ter, Hans-Dietrich
Genscher, ended his two-
day visit to Israel Friday
after an hour-long meeting
with Defense Minister Ezer
Weizman.
Their discussion repor-
tedly focused on the pros-
pects of renewed peace talks
and efforts to maintain con-
tacts between Israel and
Egypt until the talks can be
resumed.
Weizman told the Ger-
man diplomat that people
tend to forget that for 30
years the Arab majority at-
tacked the Israeli minority
but nevertheless, Israel is
often branded the aggres-
sor.
Foreign
Minister
Moshe Dayan saw
Genscher off at Ben-
Gurion Airport.
Genscher told reporters
at the airport that he had
had open and useful talks
with Israeli leaders.
Dayan said the questions
of peace in the Middle
East and its implications
for the European com-
munity and the Common
Market were discussed.
Dayan observed that
West Germany's attitude on
the Palestinian question
does not deviate from that
adopted by the nine member
states of the European
Economic Community
(EEC), which West Ger-
many will chair.
Before he left, Genscher
met with a delegation of
widows of the Israeli Olym-
pic athletes killed in the
1972 Munich massacre.
They demanded indemnifi-
cation from the Bonn gov-
ernment.
Service Center
for NY Elderly
NEW YORK (JTA) — A
new center for community
services and continuing
services for the aged is
being planned in Manhat-
tan by the Jewish Associa-
tion for Services for the
Aged, a federation agency.
To be named the Margu-
erite and Maurice A. Hexter
building, the site is pre-
sently occupied by the Heb-
rew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion, the
Reform seminary, which
plans to relocate in the New
York University area.
Theodore H. Silbert,
JASA chairman, said in ad-
dition to cultural events and
concerts in the new facility,
it will also serve as the
Manhattan Community
Service office to provide
comprehensive social ser-
vices, counseling and out-
reach programs.
The old maid who marries
becomes a young wife.