The Odessa File
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Short description
In 1963 Hamburg, the suicide of an elderly Jewish man leaves behind a diary that describes atrocities committed by Eduard Roschmann, a former SS captain who commanded a concentration camp during the Second World War. The diary reaches Peter Miller, a freelance journalist, who learns that Roschmann is living in the city under a false identity. Miller decides to track him down, and his investigation brings him into contact with Israeli intelligence. He finds that Roschmann has become a prominent figure in post-war German industry and is shielded by a network of former SS members known as Odessa, which supplies its members with new identities and help escaping abroad.
The film is a German and British co-production directed by Ronald Neame, whose earlier work includes Scrooge (1970) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and whose later films include Meteor (1979) and Foreign Body (1986). Kenneth Ross and George Markstein wrote the screenplay, and John Woolf produced. Jon Voight plays Miller, with Maximilian Schell as Roschmann and Maria Schell, Mary Tamm, Derek Jacobi and Peter Jeffrey among a credited cast of forty.
The Odessa File drew a critics' rating of 6.5 out of 10 from 16 reviews, slightly below its audience scores of 7 out of 10 on IMDb from around 13,000 votes and 6.6 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller base of 206 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- Producer John Woolf (1913-1999) and director Ronald Neame were convinced that the film had to be shot in Germany to convey the atmosphere of Frederick Forsyth's novel (1972). The author based the novel on real events and the subsequent lengthy investigation, so filming it anywhere else would have been simply unfair to it. Even the studio used authentic items as props, and the work of set designer Rolf Zehetbauer was genuinely executed in wood, stone, and metal.
- Supporting and episodic roles were largely played by actors of German origin. A significant portion of the characters were portrayed by well-known German theater and film actors. English-speaking actors were coached (by Osman Ragheb) to speak with a German accent similar to that of German actors and actresses. John Voight and Mary Tamm (1950-2012) had to learn to speak with an accent, and even with the nuances of a North German dialect, because their characters were originally from Hamburg.
- Hannes Messemer (1924-1991) played a character who is never named in the film. It is believed that he played SS Gruppenführer Richard Glücks (1889-1945), a former head of the Nazi concentration camp system, who disappeared after World War II and is considered one of the founders of “O.D.E.S.S.A.”
- Edward Roschman (1908-1977) was indeed a man wanted for war crimes, and he lived in South America after the war. The search for him became even more active after the publication of a book with the same name (1972) and a film based on it directed by Ronald Nymeier (1911-2010) (1974). Roschman was found dead; it was believed that he was killed by members of “O.D.E.S.S.A.” after his search was taken seriously.
- The abbreviation “O.D.E.S.S.A.” stands for “Organisation der ehemaligen S.S. Angehrigen,” or the organization of former SS members.
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