The Boys from Brazil
Publicity for the film stated that this was the first villainous role of Gregory Peck's career. Peck felt that his portrayal of Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele was the only completely unsympathetic role that he ever performed. However, Peck's characters in Duel in the Sun (1946), Moby Dick (1956) and The Bravados (1958) have often been described as villains.,In the movie, the young clones of Hitler all have dark hair, but in real life his hair was never dark. As a young boy he was blond, and his hair became medium brown as he got older, as is the case with many blond children.,Gertrud: [Mengele has just knocked Mundt to the floor] Get a doctor!
Dr. Josef Mengele: I *am* a doctor, idiot.
Gertrud: Don't you come near him!
Dr. Josef Mengele: Shut up, you ugly bitch.,The 20th Century Fox logo is in black and white and does not have the fanfare playing over it.,West German theatrical release as well as all subsequent German TV broadcasts and video/DVD editions were cut by 20 minutes for content. Only in 2007 the complete version was released on DVD.,Featured in Sneak Previews: Death on the Nile/Somebody Killed Her Husband/Interiors/The Boys From Brazil/A Wedding/Piranha/Up in Smoke (1978),WE'RE HOME AGAIN
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Lyrics by Hal Shaper
Sung by Elaine Paige,Had I seen the film without reading the back of the video cassette, I would have enjoyed the film a lot more. But for some reason, a major plot point, revealed 1 1/2 hours into the film, is plainly written in black on orange. Since the movie moves in ever decreasing circles to reveal this secret quite efficiently, I don't see why the publicity department chose to sabotage it.

Nevertheless, the plot is more plausible than it sounds when you try to describe it (which, as I have just said, should be avoided anyway), and the leads play beautifully. Especially incredible is Laurence Olivier as the doddering, worldly-wise jewish Nazi hunter, Dr. Lieberman. You'd never expect the frail form in this movie to be the same man as Hamlet. Gregory Peck also plays Dr. Joseph Mengele as suitably and calmly evil. A lesser actor would find playing the part of a Nazi Death Doctor, responsible for some of the worst atrocities in human history, a perfect excuse to ham it up and click into the black-hatted, moustache-twisting token villain.

The less impressive acting of Steve Guttenberg overacting into a telephone and Jeremy Black with a really strange german accent as Erich Doring. This I can forgive. The ending is also comfortable and understated, with a moral instead of a huge explosion, as could have been expected in a 90's movie. Worth seeing, especially if you know nothing about the film.,