Ira Levin was on a literary hot streak with modern horror novels that translated easily to film. Rosemary’s Baby dealt with the extreme cost of renting a prime apartment in Manhattan. The Stepford Wives imagined how Disney Imagineers would fix their spouses. Rounding out his monumental trio was The Boys From Brazil. Three years after people read the book, they were able to see how cloning can be used for the ultimate of evil purposes. The Boys From Brazil brings together an all star cast for a diabolical purpose.
Barry Kohler (Three Men and Baby‘s Steve Guttenberg) is a charming kid roaming around South America. He’s not on spring break looking for lovely native gals. He’s in hot pursuit of fugitive Nazis. He has stumbled upon a rather extensive get together that includes Eduard Seibert (Lolita‘s James Mason) and the nightmarish Dr Josef Mengele (To Kill A Mockingbird‘s Gregory Peck). He calls to Vienna to report his findings to famed and underfunded Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier). At first Ezra thinks the kid is nuts. When photographic evidence arrives, he fears something big is happening. Barry figures out a really dumb way to bug the Nazi gathering. He records part of their big plan. But he can’t get all the details to Ezra. The only thing Ezra knows is that 94 old men are slated to be executed in the next stage of the evil plan. Why are they doing this?
Turns out Joseph Mengele has cloned Hitler. But he knows that this isn’t enough to revive his former boss. They have placed numerous clones with families that resemble Hitler’s family. Now the Nazis must alter those families to give the Hitler 2.0s a chance to have the same traumas that will shape him to once more ruin the world. Ezra does his best to uncover this plot, but he doesn’t quite have the same funding as the low profile Nazis lurking around the world.
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The movie holds up with a wicked performance from Gregory Peck. He’s quite sinister in his white suits. Olivier gets the attitude of a man burdened by the call for justice. The strange thought is that Steve Guttenberg had an acting career before Police Academy. He’s fine as the overeager kid who really gets in too deep for his own good. Easy to see why he didn’t become a dentist. One of the women that might be the mother of Hitler 2.0 is Ann Meara. This means Ben Stiller might be a Hitler clone. Director Franklin J. Schaffner does a fine job of illuminating the scary nature of the material. He had previously marveled audiences with The Planet of the Apes and Patton. Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire gives a summary of the science that is better than Jurassic Park educational moment. The Boys From Brazil is a shocker that only seems more scary as news of cloning advances get in the media.
The video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The HD transfer looks rather well. The visit to the dam in Sweden footage has a crispness to the snow. The audio is DTS-HD mono. The levels are fine as the Nazis shout at each other. The movie is subtitled.
Theatrical Trailer (3:04) sets up the horror to come if the Nazis plan can’t be stopped.
The Boys From Brazil blends together the menace of Nazis and cloning into a fine menacing tale of modern horror.
Shout! Factory presents The Boys From Brazil. Directed by: Franklin J. Schaffner. Written by: Heywood Gould. Starring: Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason and Steve Guttenberg. Running Time: 124 minutes. Rated: PG. Released: January 6, 2015.
