THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
College Names Midwest Rep.
Nazism Focal Point of New Movies
By HERBERT G. LUFT _
Copyright 1978, JTA, Inc.)
HOLLYWOOD — "Hit-
ler's Son" is the title for an
English-language picture
photographed in its entirety
on actual locations in the
southern Bavarian and Au-
strian Alps. It is an original
screenplay by Burkhart
Driest (and is being pro-
duced by Driest), Dr. Gerd
Goering (no relative of
rmann) and Heinz Hur-
\__ _icier, with the .latter sup-
plying most of the funds for
the film.
Willy, a son of Hitler (por-
trayed by youthful•Bud' Cort
who made himself a name
with the spoof "Harold and
Maude" a few years ago),
comes from the backwoods
of the mountains into the
city of Munich to be
exploited by a group of un-
repentant Nazis trying to
use him to promote a re-
surgency of their creed.
Peter Cushing, Anton
Diffring and Heinz Bennent
(the latter the Caligari-like
doctor from "Serpent's
Egg") portray three ex-
military men in love with
the totalitarian fatherland
of yesterday, while Hol-
lywood's Leo Gordon depicts
a war-weary German ex-
sergeant who warns the
would-be warriors: "Let's
not do it again!"
Perhaps it is interesting
to note that,all three mem-
bers of the production firm
on "Naxos," namely Goer-
ing, Driest and Hurlander,
themselves are Germans
who invested several mil-
lions of dollars to make a
picture which not only has
entertainment value but
also serves as a warning
that the Nazis are bracing
themselves for a comeback.
American director Rod
Amateau, who has made
Mins in Hollywood, New
York, London and Italy,
springs from a Sephardic
family which immigrated
to the U.S. from the island
of Rhodes. He wouldn't
make a picture which
could damage the image
of the Jewish people.
.
Samuel Fuller's World
War II epic, "The Big Red
One," went before the
cameras June 25, 1978,
near Israel's fashionable
resort town of Herzliya
where at sundown the grey
desert rocks turn to a fiery
red and orange.
The picturesque site,
which has an air of con-
tentment about it, this time
serves as the grim back-
ground of total war, dup-
licating on the screen
stretches of North African
wastelands of sands, where
the 1st Infantry division hit
the beaches Nov. 8, 1942, a
day to be remembered as a
_turning point in the strug-
gle against Nazism and
Fascism.
Hollywood has come to Is-
rael to catch on film an in-
timate close-up of a unit of
foot soldiers, participants in
the Allied crusade to crush
and wipe out forever the
most fiendish regime since
the dawn of civilization.
The focus throughout is
on "The Sergeant" (Lee
Marvin), four riflemen,
Griff (Mark Hamil of "Star
Wars"), Zab (Robert Car-
radine), Vinci (Bobby Di-
cicco) and Johnson (Kelly
Ward).
DARBYS DELI
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REOPENING AS USUAL THURS., OCT. 12
In addition to the five
principal cast members,
there are international per-
formers, such as France's
Stephane Audran, Martine
Rodan, Guy Marchand,
Maurice Marsac; Alain
Doutey; Italy's Marthe Vil-
lalonga and Giovanna
Galetti; Germany's Christa
Lang and Siegfried Rauch;
and a number of leading Is-
raeli actors, ironically
enough •Avraham Ronai in
the role of a German field
marshal.
"The Boys From
Brazil," the forthcoming
motion picture from the
book by Ira Levin,
doesn't just deal with one
offspring of Adolf Hitler,
. but with 95 carbon copies
of the Fuehrer, created
by the process of cloning
from the actual tissue of
the man himself. The
potential new Hitlers, ac-
cording to the film, are
alive and well and roam
about the world.
I talked with Robert
Fryer, producer of the film,
now headquartered at the
20th Century-Fox, where
the editing nears comple-
tion for the picture to open
Oct. 5.
Fryer reveals thaehe was
amazed when most of the
heads of Hollywood's
studios turned down the
motion picture property for
financing and distribution.
It was England's Sir Lew
Grade, himself a desc e n-
dant of Russian Jews, who
recognized the timeliness
and moral fibre of Ira Le-
vin's book and as soon as he
underwrote the project, the
film went into production.
Originally, Fryer and his
director, Franklin J.
Schaffner, wanted to shoot
the South American se-
quence on actual location in
Paraguay, and their art di-
rector undertook a trip to
Asuncion to scout locations.
After a number of photo-
graphs were taken for the
production design, the local
government found out
about the film's subject
matter and quickly asked
the movie unit to leave the
country.
The jungle of Brazil
and the metropolitan
sites of Paraguay now
have been recreated in
Portugal; additional
scenes were photo-
graphed in Austria
where Nazi hunter Wie-
senthal lives in the quiet
town of Lancaster, Pa.,
the actual background to
the story's bloody con-
frontation. Interiors
were photographed at
the British Shepperton
studios.
Sir Laurence Olivier por-
trays Simon Wiesenthal,
called Lieberman in the
film. In order to be com-
pletely authentic in his
characterization, Olivier
studied the softer
Viennese-English accent of
the German with Marcella
Markham a language coach
specializing in this field.
Gregory Peck renders a
frighteningly real portrayal
of Dr. Mengele, the "Angel
of Death" of Auschwitz.
The producer mentioned
to me that all the names in
the book and on the screen
are fictitious, except the one
of Dr. Mengele, adding "let
him sue us! I wish he
would."
NEW YORK — Nathan
Berman of Cleveland
Heights, Ohio, has been ap-
pointed Midwest field
representative of Yeshiva
University, serving
Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cin-
cinnati, Dayton, In-
dianapolis, Chicago, St.
Louis and Detroit.
Berman has been active
in the Jewish community as
a rabbi, educator and social
worker for the past 12 years.
For oaths are straws,
men's faith are wafer cakes.
Hearty Wishes To All
Our Friends & Customers
For A
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.7a6ukus
Russians in Syria
CAIRO (ZINS) — Egyp-
tian sources believe the in-
creasing Russian presence
in Syria can be traced to
Russian medical treatment
of President Hafez Assad's
circulatory disorder.
Assad received treatment
in Moscow early in 1978,
and three Russian doctors
were sent to Damascus
three months ago.
Since that time, Assad
has allowed 500 mroe Rus-
sian military advisors 'into
Syria, opened the port of
Latakia and Damascus air-
port to the Russians, and
re-opened Russian military
intelligence offices in
Damascus.
Friday, SepteMber 29, 1918 57
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ti3rea:Alasi cSeroec/ Coery. 92rorning''
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