The Odessa File - A Nazi Way To Go

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:00][Music] Hello, my name is Tony. The late Frederick Foresight, a writer of meticulously detailed thriller novels, struck both literary and cinematic gold with his first fulllength publication, The Day of the Jackal. Due to the success of both the book and the film, the film being one of the most consistently dazzling examples of a 70s political action thriller, it was only natural that whatever he penned next was going to be snapped up by the Hollywood meat grinder in double quick time. The Adessa file was published in 1972 and by 74 it was given the big screen treatment. Whilst it didn't match Fred Zinnamman's The Day of the Jackal for sheer balls out geniuslike execution and content, it instantly became one of my favorite films of the decade. Critics at the time felt differently, labeling it slow, predictable, and even inane. While I never found it to be any of those things to any serious detriment, and I must most disrespectfully disagree.

[00:01:07]Great big steaming hairy bollocks to their assessment. Whilst I accept it has flaws, it's a damn decent film and one that is deserving of some re-evaluation and redress. Now, I may not be the best person to do that, but I was in the movie going audience of the time. And though it might have a ring of arrogance about it to say feel strongly that the film was made more for me than some failed jouro or hack writer who drifted into film criticism because they lack the creative talent to succeed at anything else. What's it all about then?

[00:01:38]I'll tell you. Film opens in the desert in 1963 on an Israeli military camp. An Israeli commander is speaking to a Mossad agent. The commander imparts that Egypt is awaiting a guidance system for a ton of warheads. The warheads will have enough chutz to wipe Israel off the map. The guidance system is being developed by ex-Nazi rocket scientists in Germany. The Mossad agent probably heads off to Germany. In Hamburg, on the runup to Christmas, freelance investigative journalist Peter Miller, John Voit, pulls his car over to the side of the road to listen to a news broadcast reporting the assassination of JFK. A cop car and an ambulance speed by. Miller decides to engage in a bit of ambulance chasing to see if there's a story at the end of it. There seemingly isn't at first. An old Jewish guy, Solomon Torba Tji Kleiner, has committed suicide with a gas oven. No, I'm not taking a piss. This is the story.

[00:02:30]probably intended as some sort of jet black irony. Later, Miller's cop friend Carl Gunner Müller gives him Toba's diary in a big file of documentary evidence. It tells the story of how Ta and his wife, German Jews, were incarcerated at Ria and of the atrocities committed there by SS Commandant Edward Rosman, Maxmillian Shell, who quickly became known as the butcher of Ria. One key event related is Rashman's murder of a highly decorated vermarked officer who stands up to him.

[00:03:01]When all seems lost for the Nazis, Rashman escapes disguised as a corporal.

[00:03:05]Toba spends the rest of his life trying to locate Rashman and bring him to justice. He recently spotted him leaving a theater in Hamburg, but the police dismissed his report and would do nothing to help. In despair, he took his own life. For reasons unknown, Miller decides to pick up the gauntlet and pursue Rashman, even though the media outlets he approaches want nothing to do with the story. His inquiries lead him to fame Nazi hunter Simon Visenthal Shme Rodenski and the organization known as Odessa. It is a secret cabal of former SS members who arrange new identities for surviving Nazi criminals and are working to provide the rocket guidance system to Egypt. Many of the highranking Hamburg police force are members and cannot be trusted. Rashman, under a fake identity, now the rich owner of a munitions factory, is leading on the development of the guidance system.

[00:03:55]Miller's investigation puts his life and that of his girlfriend, Siggy, Mary Tam, in grave danger. He's picked up by a team of Masad agents who think he's out to cause Visenthal harm. Once he's convinced them this is not the case, and he's working to expose Odessa and get to Rashman, they agree to work with him. A former SS soldier has died in a nearby hospital and the Israelis cover it up, transferring his identity to Miller. He is to infiltrate a deser as an undercover operative, secure evidence, and locate Rashman. And with that, we're off to the races. I enjoy the utility of Nazi war criminals in movie narratives.

[00:04:31]They're the perfect avatars of human evil in that despite being defeated in a world war, they just refuse to die or fully go away, always coming back for more. They carry that chillingly refined creepy threat factor ever present in tandem with a subconscious notion that even your sweet elderly nextdoor neighbor. Could be a death camp butcher with a kill count higher than Jason's or Prince Harry's. I mean, they could be anyone or anywhere. Probably not now because they're probably all dead, give or take. And they do make for some memorable screen villains. Lawrence Olivier in Marathon Man. Gregory Peek in The Boys from Brazil. Ian Mckllen in apt pupil. Michael Kaine in The Statement.

[00:05:10]It's feasible that in Hamburg in 1963, not even 20 years since the war ended, a lot of the old guard don't go all out to keep their heads down. They openly have regular gallas and reunions. Miller goes to one and gets ejected, beaten up, and his camera confiscated for taking pictures. Doubt Nazis are all that big on freedom of the press and an individual's right to free speech then worth taking note of especially in the here and now only it increasingly seems to be the left who are big on repressive fascist ideology these days perhaps unsurprisingly one of the Nazis is even the head honcho of the war crimes bureau prosecution rate isn't exactly stellar indolence and disinterest aren't only prevalent in the police and government departments the media don't want to know either you know maybe if we don't bring it Then it's like it never happened. An approach that rarely works long term because every so often someone like Miller comes along. His training by Mossad, complete with rigorous schooling in his new identity and background is brief but relentlessly intense and with good reason. The scene where he is grilled by Adessa operatives is a high tension, case in point. Every question is designed to trip him up. One false move and he's toast. Shame then that immediately after being accepted into Adessa, he goes and rings Siggy from a train station to reassure her that he's all right. It's one of those what the hell we thinking moments that unfortunately fractures the believability of the narrative. He's not supposed to make any calls and he's being watched. Odessa now have confirmation that he's a faker. Yes, I know that it sets up what happens next, and it could be argued it was necessary to achieve that, but it would have been far less damaging to the illusion if Odessa could have found out some other way. It makes Miller out to be a blundering idiot when he's supposed to be a committed and capable investigative new sound. A lot of that Mossard training was [ __ ] wasted on him.

[00:07:00]Anyway, it sets us on course for one of the film's expertly handled set pieces.

[00:07:04]In a rural village, Miller finds the home and print shop of a Desa forger Klouse Venza, Derek Jacabe, where he is to collect a passport and papers for his new identity. Venza is a creepy little guy, a nervy, repressed homosexual with a sick mother whom he cares for and lives with. This sort of setup makes it easy to imagine there's an insane sister called Cesily chained up in the attic as well. Venza tells Miller to return on the weekend to have his passport photos taken. Then shortly after phones Miller at his hotel and tells him to return within the hour. What's changed then?

[00:07:36]That would be the Adessa assassin who's rocked up to lie in wait at the print shop to kill Miller. Miller performs surveillance on the print shop and sees his wouldbe killer sat in wait. So not all that MSAD training was wasted.

[00:07:48]Climbing in through an upstairs window, he encounters, no, not poor mad Cesley, but Wenza's bedridden Muta. She awakens, but luckily mistakes Miller for a priest. That's Alzheimer's for you, and begs him to pray for her son. She has retained some insight. Then, in a wellstaged and violent confrontation, Miller defeats and kills the assassin.

[00:08:07]He then finds in Venza's safe the Adessa file of the title. It contains the names and details of every fake identity Venza ever created. Taking the file, Miller stashes it in a train station locker, giving the key to Sigy in the event that something unfortunate should befall him.

[00:08:23]Failing to grasp it could just as easily happen to her. But let's not quibble. He tells his Mosad handlers what he's got, but won't tell them where it is. He will only do so if he is allowed to confront Rashman alone. There is no choice but for the Israelis to agree, but this doesn't explain why he is such a hard on for Rashman. Well, that's the twist, but only, of course, if you haven't guessed it already. The Adessa file was always likely to suffer in comparison with the Day of the Jackal and it does. The only way to avoid this is not to compare it to Day of the Jackal. Forget about Day of the Jackal and concentrate on the Odessa file as a separate entity. The first half is a little sluggish. It takes its time about setting up the story using voiceovers, monochrome flashbacks to Ria and Rashman's cruelty.

[00:09:07]The death of Solomon's wife in a mobile gas chamber. The murder of the vermached officer, cutting back and forth to Miller, reading the diary in his apartment, oblivious to Siggy coming and going around him. That relationship's heading for the buffers. Things start to pick up following Miller's ejection from the military reunion. Whilst out Christmas shopping with Sigy, someone pushes him in front of a subway train.

[00:09:28]These Nazis don't [ __ ] around, do they?

[00:09:30]This is one of a thousand films in which Germans speak to each other with German accents. You know for yours the war is over like they're speaking in English to each other. That said I must concede that John Voit speech patterns are impeccable at least to my ears and it strikes me he must have really studied to get it that way. Ronald the Poseidon adventure neem directs without much obvious panache or flare but does assuredly demonstrate his skill for ringing tension from a scene with a measured and restrained approach. The confrontation at the print shop, Miller's interrogation by an Adessa executive, and the final meeting with Rashman, wherein all is revealed, are fine examples of a director operating on the less is more principle. I would have liked it if he could have incorporated a touch of the show don't tell principle also, especially as the dialogue is so bloody functional. But you can't have everything, I suppose. My other bug bear is Andrew Lloyd Weber's score, which is generic sonic wallpaper burdened with a dreadful Christmas song sung by Perry Como as something of a digetic saccharine centerpiece. Needed a Maurice Ya or Bernard Herman on board. On the other hand, veteran cinematographer Oswald Morris perfectly captures the visual atmosphere of a time and place.

[00:10:43]An early 60s Germany with the 60s certainly hadn't started swinging yet, if they ever did get around to it. There are several factors that raise it above the ordinary for me. In common with Foresight's novel, it's the woven amalgamation of the fictional and the factual in such a convincing way that makes it look and feel real. Simon Visenthal acted as an adviser and appeared as a character in the film. The assassination of JFK is seen to have impact. His death of global significance. Miller will certainly remember where he was when JFK died.

[00:11:15]Edward Rashman was the real common of the Ria Ghetto. There wasn't an actual Adessa organization aiding Nazi war criminals, but it bears resemblance to several less well-organized groups who did just that. The integration of the fictional with the real pleasingly transfers to the screen and is well represented in a persuasive way. Voit delivers a fine performance as do Shell and Jackabe and accents aside, there is little to fault with the acting overall.

[00:11:42]Some of you may not mind the ending being spoiled, some of you will. To those that will, I suggest you quit watching and listening now. Miller infiltrates Rashman's peronial mansion armed with a pistol. He evades security and confronts the man in his opulent study. Miller outlines the contents of Salomon's diary, spelling it out.

[00:12:00]Rashman is full of denial until Miller describes in detail the murder of the vermarked officer, adding that the man Rashman killed was, drum roll, his father. Flustered, fearing execution, Rashman goes for his gun, forcing Miller to shoot him dead. Oh, if that's not enough of a happy ending for you, later Rashman's munitions factory mysteriously burns to the ground, and the Egyptians never get their rockets and guidance system. The contents of the Adessa file allow for multiple arrests of Nazi war criminals all over Germany, including many highranking police officials. So, like they say, all's well. I always found it an interest in an entertaining film set in a murky yet poignant time in a country's history. Whether by accident or design, it explores a Germany struggling to restructure, rebuild, establish something better, but also to unsuccessfully close its collective eyes and public consciousness to the lingering ghosts of the Second World War. Ghosts that will never truly go away can never be fully exercised because history doesn't change. And there's always those who will fight for a return of the bad things to protect the wrongdoers. And those who will fight to expose them, drag them into the light, hold them to account. People like Carl and Sigy want to let things rest in a redemptive new Germany. Judging by the number of times, they advise Miller to leave it alone, let it go. People like Simon Visenthal and Miller beg to differ. It's never simply a binary choice of right or wrong. Maybe it's one of should history be allowed to repeat or not. One way of making sure it does is to do nothing to ensure it doesn't.

[00:13:37]Immense thanks for your time and attention. Feel free to do whatever you choose to do next. Hit like, don't like, comment, subscribe, check out my early access Patreon thing, or even make a welcome financial contribution via the thanks button. I'll be back shortly. You don't mind if I call you shortly before you know it with something else. How reassuring is that? Yeah, right.