Rent The Odessa File (1974)
3.6 of 5 from 88 ratings
2h 3min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
The year is 1963. The place: Hamburg, Germany. An elderly Jewish man commits suicide, leaving a diary which falls into the hands of a freelance newspaperman, Peter Miller (Jon Voight). The diary documents the unspeakable crimes of cruelty, torture and mass murder perpetrated by SS Captain Eduard Roschmann (Maximilian Schell), commandant of the notorious wartime death camp at Riga, Latvia. Miller launches a personal manhunt to track down Roschmann, an investigation that leads him into the very heart of "Odessa", a powerful secret organization formed by the SS to protect and re-establish its fugitive members throughout the world. When Miller finds Roschmann, he learns that the former Nazi is now the leader of a weaponry complex of international, strategic consequence. - Actors:
- Jon Voight., Maximilian Schell, Maria Schell, Mary Tamm, Derek Jacobi, Peter Jeffrey, Klaus Löwitsch, Kurt Meisel, Hannes Messemer, Garfield Morgan, Shmuel Rodensky, Ernst Schröder, Günter Strack, Noel Willman, Martin Brandt, Hans Caninenberg, Heinz Ehrenfreund, Alexander Golling, Towje Kleiner, Günter Meisner
- Directors:
- Ronald Neame
- Producers:
- John Woolf
- Voiced By:
- Cyril Shaps
- Writers:
- Frederick Forsyth, Kenneth Ross, George Markstein
- Aka:
- The O.D.E.S.S.A. File
- Studio:
- Columbia Tristar
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Thrillers
- Collections:
- Getting to Know..., Introducing a British Film Family
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 22/03/2021
- Run Time:
- 129 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono, German LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.39:1
- Colour:
- Colour and B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- (0) All
- Bonus:
- The BFI Interview with Ronald Neame (2003, 67 mins): archival audio recording of the award-winning filmmaker in conversation with Matthew Sweet at London's National Film Theatre
- The BFI Interview with Oswald Morris (2006, 62 mins): archival audio recording of the celebrated cinematographer in conversation with Anwar Brett at the National Film Theatre
- Safe But Real (2018, 3 mins): new and exclusive interview with stuntman Vic Armstrong
- Foreign Friends (2018, 7 mins): new and exclusive interview with continuity supervisor Elaine Schreyeck
- Super 8 version (17 mins): original cut-down home cinema presentation
- Original theatrical trailer
- Image gallery: promotional photography and publicity material
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Reviews (1) of The Odessa File
Classic 70s Thriller - The Odessa File review by GI
This is one of a series of really great psychological thrillers made in the 1970s this one based on the popular novel by Frederick Forsyth and co-scripted by him. Set in West Germany in 1963 and investigative journalist Peter (Jon Voight) is given the diary of an old man who has committed suicide. The diary reveals the old man was a former inmate of a Nazi extermination camp and had recently seen the former commandant and wanted war criminal Roschmann (Maximilian Schell) walking free in Hamburg. Peter, after reading the horrors outlined in the diary, decides to try and track down Roschmann and his investigation soon finds him the target of a sinister organisation known as Odessa and he becomes of interest to the Israeli intelligence services. This has a good solid story, a twist and turn plot and a neat unforeseen ending. Voight, in one of his first big roles, is perfect as the German struggling to come to terms with the terrible past of his country and the film attempts to delve into the moral issues for modern Germans in dealing with the history of the Holocaust. But at its heart this is a good espionage yarn that is well worth seeking out.
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