The Odessa File (1974)

Directed by: Ronald Neame | 123 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Jon Voight, Maximilian Schell, Maria Schell, Maria Tamm, Derek Jacobi, Shmuel Rodensky, Hannes Messemer, Klaus Löwitsch, Kurt Meisel, Martin Brandt, Towje Kleiner

‘The Odessa File’ is a haunting crime film starring Jon Voight (‘Coming Home’ from 1978, ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ from 2004). You have to sit down for ‘The Odessa File’, because the story is not easy and is sometimes complicated. So stay tuned, until the end!

The events in ‘The Odessa File’ are set in West Germany and Austria in 1963. It has been nearly twenty years since Nazi Germany caused death and destruction in World War II. People want to forget the horrific history. A society of former Nazis organizes gatherings for old comrades. The Nazis appear to be still alive in large numbers and many, albeit with a different identity, just walk around in Germany where the evil had its origin.

The film has a messy start in which events follow each other in quick succession. A number of storylines suddenly crop up and cause ambiguity. It’s great that director Ronald Neame, of ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ from 1972, gradually gets things right, builds the tension skillfully and surprises you at the end.

With flashbacks filmed in black and white, Neame takes you to the World War II labor camps in Riga, Latvia. The images shake from time to time. Jews traveling like cattle in train cars, the removal of innocent men, women and children and public executions of so-called Untermenschen. The black and white images are perfectly chosen to show the horrors as they were. Most confrontational is the apparent ease with which the Nazis deal with the Jews. A Jew is less than nothing to them.

Jon Voight is in his element as young, slightly naive, journalist Peter Miller. Voight is extremely eager to learn more about ex-Nazis still roaming around in 1963 Germany. Why is he so eager to catch the war criminals and in particular Roschmann, the Butcher of Riga? Takeme saves the answer until last. Maximilian Schell is Eduard Roschmann. Schell plays a good role, first as a camp executioner in Latvia and later as a former Nazi who sees sufficient possibilities in the future to realize the ideas of Adolf Hitler. Terrifying is the laconic attitude of every Jew who dies before his eyes.

The power of ‘The Odessa File’ is the tension that builds as Voight gets closer to the truth. The warnings given to the young reporter are also becoming increasingly serious. At an annual anniversary for former Nazis, Voight flashes a photo of one of the speakers, which ends up on a beating and a smashed photo camera. Voight won’t stop, however, even when his girlfriend (Maria Schell) is in danger.

The Odessa organization protects its members (many hundreds of German war criminals) tooth and nail. Director Neame increases the paranoia by suggesting that the organization has its people everywhere: in the legal profession, the police force and so on. The infiltration of the organization by Voight is not well portrayed. His disguise is amateurish and a forbidden society like Odessa admits the rookie Voight faster than you might expect.

Hundreds of Nazis who continue to freely spread their pernicious ideas in a country that prefers to forget the horrors of war is an interesting premise for a film. Even victims, like Voight’s mother, want to put the past to rest. The journalist’s investigation, which begins with the diary of a survivor of the concentration camp in Riga, is captivating and becomes more and more exciting. Only the infiltration comes across as forced. Director Neame consulted Nazi fighter Simon Wiesenthal for the film. ‘The Odessa File’ provides proof that weeds do not perish.