CinemaClassics-HD: Operation Eichmann **+ (1961, Doc)
Summary: What makes this movie so frightening without spectacular, graphic violence or overly righteous handwringing is demonstrating that the architects of even the most extreme forms of evil are quite human and can be urbane and even likeable. They can honestly view their workaday world of mass murder as simply a day at the office. The film "The Wansee Conference" makes the point even more effectively but isn't nearly as artful as this film since it was basically a "manufactured documentary".
The only thing that hurts the movie is the pairing of "Klink" as Eichman and "Schultz" as his chief lieutenant. Of course, this should not be criticized since the movie predates Hogan's Heroes by 4 or 5 years. The actors are actually perfectly matched for their roles and play them well, but their popular identification as the "funny" nazis of Hogan's Heroes gives the film an unintentional comical slant at times. In fact, there is a scene where Eichman is having dinner with Schultz and his wife and kids. A seemingly normal family scene with dad and his boss discussing business----in this case, how efficient Zyklon B gas is for human extermination. The "Schultz" character replies, (I kid you not) in his best Sgt Schultz voice and manner, that "the best thing about it is that you hear NOTHING you see NOTHING..." As an interesting aside, Werner Klemperer, John Banner, and the Hogan's Heroes General Burkhalter (Leon Askin, who is not in this movie) were all Jews who fled Germany and Austria.
This low budget film effectively communicates the fact that evil can easily disguise itself as business as usual.
CinemaClassics-HD: The Asphalt Jungle ***+ (1950, Crime)
Summary: The dark urban world of The Asphalt Jungle is one of the essential destinations in film noir, but be warned: despite tough guy Sterling Hayden's dreams of bucolic escape, there is no way out. John Huston directed this superbly calibrated crime classic, which displays his usual wry appreciation of fringies and down-and-outers. This time the task for Huston's eccentric ensemble is a jewel robbery, which--this being a Huston film--can't possibly work out as well as its plan. The cast includes Sam Jaffee, indelible as a criminal mastermind, and the pre-stardom Marilyn Monroe. Hayden plays the kind of mug he would revisit in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing, which is an informal homage to this film. And the film's look is definitive: both artful and gritty, it creates a noir landscape that traps its people just as surely as the tar pits trapped the dinosaurs. No wonder they call it noir. --Robert Horton
