Odessa File, The (Columbia 1974 with Jon Voight, Derek Jacobi and Maximillian Schell)

In The Odessa File, following the suicide of an elderly Jewish man, investigative journalist Peter Miller (Jon Voight) sets out to hunt down an SS Captain and former concentration camp commander (Maximillian Schell). In doing so he discovers that, despite allegations of war crimes, the former commander has become a man of importance in industry in post-war Germany, protected from prosecution by a powerful organisation of former SS members called ODESSA. Miller’s hunt for the truth becomes increasingly dangerous as he begins to uncover connections not only with this secret organization, but also with the Israeli secret service and his own family.

A tense action thriller that presents post-war Germany as a fearful place of secret conspirators struggling to come to terms with its recent past.

production details
UK | Columbia – Domino – Oceanic | 130 minutes | 1974
Director: Ronald Neame
Script: Frederick Forsyth, George Markstein, Kenneth Ross, John Rosenberg,

cast
Jon Voight as Peter Miller
Til Kiwe as Medal Shop Proprietor
Ernst Schröder as Werner Deilmann
Georg Marischka as Prosecution Attorney
Hannes Messemer as General Richard Glücks
Maximilian Schell as Eduard Roschmann
Mary Tamm as Sigi
Maria Schell as Frau Miller
Derek Jacobi as Klaus Wenzer
Peter Jeffrey as David Porath
Klaus Löwitsch as Gustav Mackensen
Kurt Meisel as Alfred Oster
Garfield Morgan as Israeli General
Shmuel Rodensky as Simon Wiesenthal
Günter Strack as Kunik
Noel Willman as Franz Bayer
Martin Brandt as Marx
Hans Caninenberg as Dr.Ferdinand Schultz
Heinz Ehrenfreund as Shapira
Alexander Golling as Colonel
Towje Kleiner as Salomon Tauber
Günter Meisner as General Greifer
Gunnar Möller as Karl Braun
Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel as Mrs. Wenzer
Christine Wodetzky as Gisela
Werner Bruhns as Hoffmann
Dietmar Mues as Wehrmacht Captain
Hans Wyprächtiger as Landlord
Cyril Shaps as Tauber’s Voice (voice)
Herbert Fux as Make-up Man
Wolfgang Lukschy as Kranz