The Odessa File (film)
| The Odessa File | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Ronald Neame |
| Produced by | John Woolf |
| Written by |
Kenneth Ross George Markstein |
| Based on |
The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth |
| Starring |
Jon Voight Maximilian Schell Maria Schell |
| Music by | Andrew Lloyd Webber |
| Cinematography | Oswald Morris |
| Editing by | Ralph Kemplen |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release dates |
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| Running time | 130 minutes |
| Country |
United Kingdom West Germany |
| Language | English |
The Odessa File is a 1974 film adaptation of the novel The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth, about a struggle between a young German reporter and the ODESSA, an organization for ex-Nazis. The film stars Jon Voight and was directed by Ronald Neame, with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Plot
On 22 November 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Peter Miller, a young German freelance reporter, pulls over to the curb to listen to a radio report of the event in Dallas. As a result he happens to be stopped at a traffic signal as an ambulance passes by on a highway. He chases the ambulance and discovers it is en route to pick up the body of an elderly Jewish Holocaust survivor who had committed suicide, leaving behind no family. The reporter obtains the diary of the man, which contains information on his life in the World War II Riga Ghetto, and the name of the SS officer who ran the camp, Eduard Roschmann.
Determined to hunt Roschmann down, Miller dares to go undercover to join and infiltrate the ODESSA and find Roschmann, who now runs a high tech company which plans to send radio gyroscopes and biochemical warheads to Egypt to use against Israel. ODESSA is an acronym for the German phrase "Organisation der Ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen", which translates as “Organization of Former Members of the SS”.
The film's title song, "Christmas Dream", is sung by Perry Como and the London Boy Singers.
Cast
- Jon Voight - Peter Miller
- Maximilian Schell - Eduard Roschmann
- Maria Schell - Frau Miller
- Mary Tamm - Sigi
- Derek Jacobi - Klaus Wenzer
- Peter Jeffrey - David Porath
- Klaus Löwitsch - Gustav Mackensen
- Kurt Meisel - Alfred Oster
- Günter Meisner- General Greifer
- Hannes Messemer - General Richard Glücks
- Garfield Morgan - Israeli General
- Shmuel Rodensky - Simon Wiesenthal
- Ernst Schröder - Werner Deilman
- Günter Strack - Kunik
- Noel Willman - Franz Bayer
- Martin Brandt - Marx
External links
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