Your other comment said you stopped watching because the title included “unpacking.” I guess you saw enough to extrapolate Olivier’s performance was creepy before you stopped watching this vid.
Thanks for the reminder. I knew there was a freaking repetitive out of context line but couldn't remember it. I have to get this movie on DVD it is one of the best.
Old Lady on 47th Street: I know that man. It can't be... Szell? Szell. Szell! Szell! Szell! My God! Stop him! Szell! Stop Szell! It's Szell. Der Weisse Engel! Der Weisse Engel is here. Oh my God, stop him. Stop him. Der Weisse Engel! Der Weisse Engel. He has to be stopped. My God! He gets away. Der Weisse Engel is here. Szell. Stop him! Der Weisse Engel... Oh please, help me. He's a beast. He's a murderer. You must stop him. Oh my God. There he goes! He's getting away! *Absolutely gut-wrenching!!!
Schzel was known as "De Weiss Engel" ( The White Angel ) because of his thick white hair. He shaved it off as a disguise before he left his country to fly to New York ( And he was a fugitive in Paraguay, not Uruguay ).
I apologize if people find this a gruesome or sadistic comment but let's face it: Dick Smith's makeup of Fred Stuthman's throat being slit is sublime and adds to the overall tenor and terror of the scene. (Interestingly, Dick Smith brutally cut up Stuthman in 'The Sentinel' as well)
Sir laurence olivier performance makes this movie a masterpiece great cast but olivier overshadow every one that is why he was the greatest actor of all time
In 1976, New York was a city in crisis. So, the reaction of the other citizens in the diamond district shouldn't be shocking at all... Taxi Driver had the same realistic coldness of New Yorkers during those times. 🤔
@johnhaas3270 Old Lady on 47th Street : I know that man. It can't be... Szell? Szell. Szell! Szell! Szell! My God! Stop him! Szell! Stop Szell! It's Szell. Der Weisse Engel! Der Weisse Engel is here. Oh my God, stop him. Stop him. Der Weisse Engel! Der Weisse Engel. He has to be stopped. My God! He gets away. Der Weisse Engel is here. Szell. Stop him! Der Weisse Engel... Oh please, help me. He's a beast. He's a murderer. You must stop him. Oh my God. There he goes! He's getting away! This scene gives me goosebumps and chills no matter how many times I watch it! I was 12 or 13 when this movie came out. Now I'm 60.
A city in crisis yes but I loved it !. music, film, theatre, writing , the Arts were flourishing.. when artists could afford to live in the city.. loved it with all its crisis
You can not overestimate the sterling quality of this film. The high and constant tension underlying the film is relentless and I can almost feel myself becoming tense when I watch it and I have seen it many times.
I agree with the tense scenes, yes; the movie had too many holes and subplots. Arrogant William Goldman thinks everything he writes is the best. He's not a great screenwriter.
So this movie came out in 1976. The Thames documentary tv series The World at War came out in 1973. The producers really scored a coup when they were able to secure....Lawrence Olivier as the narrator. He does a brilliant job in that narration. Strongly recommend viewing. I think you can get all of the episodes on RU-vid.
Fun fact: Outside my building there's a homeless man who regularly screams outside that one of our residents is a paedophile. It's easy to assume he must crazy. But what if we're just gaslighting him, like in the movie?
This is a movie that really stays with you....I saw it in theater when it was first released. Made a big impact. Another film that really impacted me was "The Two of Us", a B&W French film about a young Jewish boy who goes to live with a Christian elderly couple in rural France in a bid to escape the Gestapo dragnet. The old farmer is played by that grizzled old actor (whose name escapes me) who also played Papa Bull in "The Train" and his supporting role was excellent. Especially when he kicked Burt Lancaster off of his steam engine yelling, "Get off of my train!" kicking him off the ladder and he hit the ground. A really touching film and it, like Marathon Man, has stayed with me for nearly 50 years now. That is the power of cinema.
Holey Moley! I saw this film in 1977 as a teenager for free as a student at the University of Toronto. I really like your comment that "No small part in a film is ever unimportant (sic)" This shows that you truly understand film!~ The old Holocaust surviviors are both really great. Especially the older woman. 😄 Never let the Nazi's get away with crime! Especially in 2024!!
The plotline was Schzel's brother was killed in a car crash in New York, so he was forced to come out of hiding to collect his fortune which was stored in a safebox in a Manhattan bank.
In a film loaded with astounding scenes, I'm glad I stumbled across this analysis of maybe its MOST astounding scene. (And yes, the restaurant scene is ANOTHER great one!)
Two thoughts. Having graduated from H. S. IN 1969, I learned barely anything about the holacost. I remember seeing Marathon Man when it came out and it came to me it was not history but there were still living persons who experienced these horrors amongst we the ignorant. The diamond district scene brought me the closest to this reality. When in 1978 I took a position in NYC and found myself in the Diamond district. This reality became more palpable to me. This all led me on my quest to know more about this terrible time in European history, Secondly, I think I have this correct, a story about Hoffman and Olivier working together on the film. Both men were of different generational acting schools. Hoffman, to be more authentic in his role, would starve himself and not sleep to better act his scenes. Seeing these extreme measures Olivier seeing what Hoffman went through asked Hoffman why he didn't simply 'act'.
We had either CBC or CTV back then. Neither would carry this movie. We got cable TV. As a young kid I remember cable was showing Minot ND as lead station. Then they change it to Detroit. A Detroit station had an all night movie. I remember it as they had the Moon start at the 9 O'clock and end at the 4AM. So basically the Moon went across the sky as the hours went by. Then one night they said. The midnight show will be Marathon Man. We watch this show on USA Network knowing Canada networks would not carry it. It is an excellent movie.
reactive abuse. it's easy to duck under the radar as an abuser when the abused looks crazy on the streets. flipping their lid. people disregard what appears crazy. even if it contains validity.
German actress Lotte Palfi-Andor had not done any stage work since 1952. She was chosen for this role in 1976 by director John Schlesinger for authenticity. Her brief performance in "Marathon Man" was stunning. Amazingly, she appeared in 3 films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Casablanca (1942) & All That Jazz (1979). Casablanca (1942) was the winner. One of her memorable roles was in Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart (1942), where she was "the woman who has to sell her diamonds" to escape the Nazis. Ironically, in Marathon Man (1976) she was "the woman on 47th street," who began to chase the Nazi Szell trying to fence his stolen diamonds. Another unsung actress was the magnificent Luana Anders. Luana played a young girl named Joan Goss in a "One Step Beyond" episode "The Voice." (on RU-vid). Her performance in court at the end of that episode was powerful, creepy & impressive. She should've become a major star. She was a close friend of both actress Sally Kellerman & Jack Nicholson. She did appear in many of Jack's classic films in small parts. Jack even paid her a personal tribute during his 1998 Academy Award-winning speech for "As Good As It Gets." That's one hell of an endorsement. RIP Lotte & Luana. You were both memorable.
In the seventys, I was invited to a private concert in Los Angeles with a friend. I was amazed at how short these people were, and it turned out they were European jews. The elderly ladies rolled up their sleeves to reveal the tattooed numbers on their arms. Too this day, I can see myself looking down at these elderly women and was speechless. I promised myself I would visit Germany and see the camps. I did in 1981. IT was my final bike ride all over Europe. TOO THIS DAY I TRUST NO ONE. I'M ALONE NOW STILL HEATHLY @ 81 YEARS OLD. I GIVE A SCHOLARSHIP EVERY TO NEWPORT HIGH ON HOW HISTORY EFFECTS OUR FUTURE.😢😢😢
Nonsense to say we all feel sympathy for Szell in jewellery scene. I remember watching it and hoping he is caught . The arrogance of walking around to see how much a diamond is worth.
Grateful for this analysis. Watched this scene over 30 times. Maybe not intended, but can't escape the thought that two more Jewish people died by just being near Szell and recognizing him over 30 years later.
A great movie and one that I've loved since I was in my teens. Thanks for this excellent review of Diamond District scene. There's was so much in there to think about!
Loved your analysis of this movie. It is one of my many favorites from that period. Just another example of how a great film doesn’t require CGI or Special Effects.
It had the best Makeup Artist who has ever lived , Dick Smith (the Exorcist, The Godfather) who created working special makeup effects before there were special makeup effects. Seeing a throat slit with blood flowing so realistically , was never seen up until that time. Dick even designed special Dentures for Hoffman which he wore from the first scene. this way, they could show his tooth being drilled into in close up without damaging his real teeth. . For the scene where Roy Scheider's palm is cut open on camera, he designed a palm prosthetic made of gelatine, which looked exacly like skin and could actually be cut into on camera with blood tubes feeding the flow. Dick Smith was my Mentor and created some pioneering work.
This is kind of a weird perverse Seinfeld scene. I could see this happening to Kramer. "No, I'm Doctor Martin van Nostrand". You hear the three chords...
You did a good job on one level. However I think you read (or misread?) more into the scene than was intended. I never feel any sympathy for Szell. And it's never gone into exactly why everyone ignored the survivor, however if you go back to Midnight Cowboy (the previous Schlesinger-Hoffman-NYC film), we see New Yorkers ignoring everything in general that happens on the street, including a man who just dropped dead. I assumed your analysis would touch on Olivier's great performance; how he adapts the persona of a survivor himself. You didn't really address how unlikely it would be that Szell would go to the heart of the diamond district unless he had no idea it had many Jews who may (and would) recognize him. Only to find out the value of diamonds---not even his own--didn't really make sense, except as a vehicle for survivors to confront him. Had I been there I would have taken Lotte Palfi Andor (who was also in Casablanca) seriously. Finally I don't think the use of the term Holocaust has any bearing on the actual events which were widely known by the time of this film. Technically "The Holocaust" refers to all victims of the Nazis while Shoah refers specifically to the Jewish genocide. The irony is the real "White Angel" Mengele was still hiding in plain sight in Sao Paulo, Brazil until he drowned in 1979.
HBO aired this film in the early eighties. I was young and didn’t really understand it much…but the dentist scene struck the same fear into me AS MUCH as Jaws did - causing people to not enter the water ever again! I’m still to this day frightened when I see the Novocain needle coming my way.
Incredible movie. But I must disagree with your analysis. I doubt many felt any sympathy for Zell. I’ve seen this movie many times and never felt any sympathy. He was evil and what ever Justice he gets. Your reading of Zell requires that Nazis felt guilt. But we saw few if any did.
I originally sat down to watch this movie without knowing anything about it....... absolutely amazing movie. Your analysis about viewers reactions to certain scenes are spot on. Wish more people knew about this movie.
The narrator of this video has it totally wrong about the movie viewers feeling scared for him (Olivier). What most of us were feeling was that we couldn't wait for him to get his just desserts.
Never felt sympathy for the character Zel but for his victims.It shows how criminally dishonest these Nazis were.As though they would not just torture and murder but steal aswell. This Film was another New York Classic of that Era and for some of us a film that could be watched many times….a classic.
Hitchcock (for one) did use this technique of suspense for the fate of a villain. Just a small nit-pick, which is in no way intended as any criticism of your excellent overview. I don't think the suggestion was that the elderly lady was actually hit by the car. I think the editing shows she reacted in shock and and instinctively threw herself away from the car, falling to the ground. This explains why she is then shown unsteady, but continuing her imploring those around her to respond to Schell's presence.
Will never forget “reviewing “ this scene with a then acquaintance who was the son of a repatriated Nazi scientist . We didn’t have it on a VCR but we were both so mesmerized by the scene that it was emblazoned on us and in us and we could act out the lines and the parts. The OSS (precursor to the CIA ) had repatriated many German scientists . This son of one knew that my father was a scholar and researcher of the Holocaust so his “performance” of the parts seemed to me to be a taunt somehow eerily enough . He strangely replaced the fictional name of the dentist with that of Klaus Barbie.
I have watched Marathon Man many more times than Midnight Cowboy. The thing I loved, the thing I related to, was Dustin Hoffman's character being so alone, so alone in the world. Running, running, running away.
It seems to me that ignoring a highly agitated elderly woman would be a typical New York reaction. People wouldn’t be phased in the least by that kind of behaviour
Perhaps not many people understand how progressive Germany was in the 1920's. It is partly because of the cultural aspects of German culture, which is based on the truth, and abiding by the law. When I say abiding by the law, again I doubt anyone can conceive of it, unless they experience it. Germans are said to be born into a "process"; from birth to death. If you then apply the work ethic to the mix, you almost end-up with the potential societal level of what can only be compared to a machine. If you take all of these points, and then extrapolate it to 1939, what you have, is this machine, hoodwinked culturally to be used for destruction. Anyone that thinks that the tech in 1939 must have been rubbish when it comes to processing victims, honestly has no clue, on the "processes" in Germany. Manual though they were, mostly, with paper records rather than digital ones, adherence to the rules and defined processes, makes me shudder to think, that were I to have been there as a victim, that there would have not been a nano-meter of a slither of a chance of being able to escape. So, for those that survived, such a process driven death machine, the scars would be as fresh as those of the old woman, that recognizes Der weiße Engel.
Hmmm. Not sure I agree completely with this reading - specifically, why no one will help this woman. First, even if they - the crowd - collectively understood what she was screaming about (and that's unlikely - we can't really know the clarity to confusion ratio in the crowd), the vast majority of citizens have neither the authority or the needed physical capability to apprehend someone. Most people understand that it's a physically risky move to intercede in such a situation, one which may come out very badly for them. So why risk it? The point of this terrifically riveting scene - and it certainly is worth talking about - is that we must acknowledge the degree of helplessness within a random crowd. They do not act boldly if they do not share a common understanding of what is at stake.
This was an enigmatic film , with its scenes implying something big , some major piece of a grand puzzle about to be revealed . Oddly , there was something poignant in the character portrayed by Marta Keller . She obviously had her usefulness , her beauty , to lure Dustin Hoffmann’s character into something - which was never satisfyingly explained . But Marta’s character was the most vulnerable , or so it seemed to me , maybe because of the sex scene where she was on her back on the floor , she looked so frail or something , arms above her head , boobs and ribs pointing toward the ceiling . And as if to emphasize how expendable that she was , the bad guys snuffed out her life as easy as putting out a match , with Marta’s beautiful and vulnerable face lying on her back , but her eyes rolled back into her skull in death - and she was an otherwise healthy young woman .
This was a great 360 look at this scene. And the way you spun the themes and setting out into the era it was made, the history of the subject etc...was masterful. I jotted down half a dozen things to look into just from this video. Looking forward to going back through your previous videos.
I have always been impressed by the staging of Szell's getaway from the scene. 12:47 His taxicab flees west across 6th avenue while every figure outside on the street appears to be running in the opposite direction, towards the distracting chaos that just occurred on Diamond & Jewelry Way.
This is an interesting take. Was relatively young when I first watched this movie, well before starting out as a amateur WWII buff. Even then, knowing what a monster he was, I felt no sympathy for Szell. None at all. And as I learn more about this evil, I kind of wished Babe would have kept some of the diamonds to use for charity. Maybe part of it was because, as it turns out, it was safe...
Sir Laurence Olivier was indeed a master of his art. This character he played with such impeccable intensity that one almost forgets he is the man from those classic Shakespeare dramas. He created a horrific template of an evil here so perfectly it is scarier than Hannibal Lector.
Great analysis, nice to revisit and scrutinize this important film. Olivier was such a great Nazi, juxtaposed against the weaker Nazi hunter in the lesser film Boys from Brazil.
Why can't they make movies like this any longer? The crap that now comes out of Hollywood is pap and utterly boring. Sex and violence are the mains themes of modern Hollywood cinema. I stopped going to mainstream movies many years ago and instead went to the Gene Siskel Theater in Chicago to see excellent cinema.
Thanks alot for your intriguing discussion of this section of Marathon Man (which has been one of my favourite films ever since I first saw it). I like that you treat the structure/ form given to the section by the script writer Goldman. I see it more clearly now: (((all the other characters are dead, the final goal is not to let get away Scell with his plan ( old lady calls himout. Her fall in front of the taxi empties the scene for ( the direct confrontation between the male survivor and the criminal which no one must observe because ( it is laid into the hands of the main opposite character, Levy, to catch and punish Szell, fittingly indirectly through that one own hand/blade. )))) What a powerful build-up of tension and motivation. - Shalom.
Great film. But one goof I noticed...as a New Yorker...is that to get to the bank on Madison Avenue uptown the cab should have immediately made a right turn onto 6th Avenue.
How can I not return, as you welcome us to do at the end of your posting, when I've been treated to such careful and closely observed passage from this memorable film ? Thank you for your insightful reading of the diamond district scene. It is certainly the one I remember the most. Olivier is wonderful here. I must confess I hadn't ever thought of the old woman not being taken seriously as a question needing an explanation. For the reasons you've mentioned, she's ignored and this builds tension and suspense and tantalizes the viewer. But the ways we can be manipulated with subconscious reactions to danger is part of the language and magic of film. The scene's idea is a fantastic one, the irony of Szell having no choice but to be in the diamond district with its vivid, vibrant slice of Jewish culture, if it weren't absolutely imperative, is ironic and suspenseful in the extreme. From beginning to end, fine filmmaking.
The idea that people walking in midtown are giving all this thought to this woman is absolutely absurd. Obviously you have never been there. I was a foot messenger in the 70;s. If I didn't see some maniac screaming on the subway or street everyday that would be unusual.
Great scene in a great movie. Laurence Olivier exudes evilness. Cold blue eyes, immaculately dressed and groomed and no trace of humanity in his personality. I like this video breaking it down.
I have mixed feelings about Marathon Man. On one hand it brilliantly creates a sinister, paranoid atmosphere (and gritty, uncaring 70s NYC is a great actor here!). OTOH, there are side- and back stories, that don't really work, like Babe and Doc's unlucky father. The motiviation of the main villian is also not entirely clear. Nevertheless, it's worth watching and being it just for Olivier's bone-chilling dentist. It's just not at the level of other "paranoia thrillers" of the 70s like 'Parallax View'.
I grew up in nyc and Jewish, though not particularly religious, I heard the term holocaust at a young age. In school, at home, etc. Not sure where you’re getting your information from.
Awesome video, thank you! Saw this with my Dad in the theater the weekend it was released. Unnerved me. I was training to make the high school cross-country team and thought it was actually about running.
Zell was afraid that Nicky Santaro and his "Hole in the wall" gang would find out he had millions of dollars worth of diamonds and go to NYC to rob him.
That old diamond dealer with the concentration camp tattoo played creepy rolls in campy horror movies as I recall. One was where he played an undertaker.
It’s like this - I think: we spend a disproportionate amount of time asking ourselves, “Could I have gotten away with it?” We therefore are fascinated by he who has lost, she who’s chased, they who failed despite having prepared and done their best. The ethics behind the pursuit are not an issue. Will they find you out?
