Not to mention they have at least one submarine that apparently has a cloaking device since it's parked quite comfortable just off the coast of Italy.
I mean come on.
I kept waiting to find out where these Nazis were hiding. Secret lair I guess.
Otherwise decent movie.
That was actually a common gimmick in 60s TV shows - MFU included. Hell, even Star Trek had Nazis!
shareIt's not the Nazis. It's the Nazi submarine in the Mediterranean that takes it one layer beyond possibility.
You can only make it work if the next film were about finding the secret Nazi submarine pen and Reichsmarshall's lair along the Turkish coast - and the cloaking device!
Speaking of submarines, though, I recently bought the DVD of the short-lived '60s series "Jericho," about three Allied agents operating (with ridiculous impunity) behind German lines in WWII. One episode revolved around destroying a submarine pen supposedly tucked away underneath a church in a French village. The approach was via a small stream with one of those picturesque stone bridges over it, right in the middle of town. We were to believe a U-boat could get clearance under that! And they blew it up with bombs hidden in loaves of French bread.
There's a reason these shows used to spark so much creative play among the neighborhood kids. The plots were exactly what a child could relate to.
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The Nazi were based in South America and the sub was there to transport the bomb back to their base in Argentina.
shareYes, but the point is that a submarine couldn't possibly operate with impunity in the Mediterranean. These were NATO waters. It would have had to pass through Gibraltar. (Ever see "Das Boot"?) German subs were becoming sitting ducks for Allied technology by 1943 - and this is 20 years later! During the Cold War.
shareExactly peggygeordie! A few scattered old Nazis 20 years after the war hiding in Argentina is fine and relatively accurate. But from that to a Nazi organization with subs and the ability to elude detection and the funds to buy nukes should have at least garnered a mention in the movie. Who were they? Were was their lair? That's all I'm saying.
I know about Nazis in Argentina as my ancestors lived there during WWII and stories of German subs off-loading passengers and cargo at remote beaches in the middle of the night were very popular back then.
Have you ever read any of the Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr? There's one that takes him to post-war Argentina and some really chilling evidence of continued Nazi war crimes, which the author notes is based on reality. I'd elaborate but don't want to spoil the book.
sharePhilip Kerr is one of my favourite authors. I've read all the Bernie Gunther books, including that one. I wish someone would make a film (or films) of them, as I love detective stories. Of course they'd lose a lot of their complexity and I can't imagine who'd play Bernie. It'd have to be someone with the grit and humour of Bogart.
shareAnother Bernie Gunther book is coming out in March! Hurrah!
And at one point HBO was considering a Bernie Gunther series with Tom Hanks producing. They may still be. I imagine the holdup would be finding just the right Bernie. Without that there IS no series.
I went on Amazon to have a look and realised that I haven't read "The Lady From Zagreb" yet. I think I was waiting for it to come down in price, then forgot to look again. So I've downloaded it for £1.99!!! So pleased!
Hope the HBO series works out. Fingers crossed. Yes, finding the right Bernie will be very tough. I've got a picture of him in my mind and I can't think of an actor to match it. The nearest would be somebody like Brian Cranston (with his hair, obviously) but he's too linked to Breaking Bad. He's also maybe a little old to play earlier Bernie.
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It annoyed the hell out of me to hear Ilya use the word "Nazi." Soviet Communists disliked the term, as it comes from a contraction of 'National Socialist,' and the Soviet regime didn't want to confirm that the 1933-45 German regime was anything like their own. Preferred terms were "Fascist" or "Hitlerite."
shareBe warned: "Zagreb" has a torture scene so awful I could barely get through it. Normally I read the books out loud to my boyfriend, who has macular degeneration, but that one I told him I'd have to fast forward as I couldn't go there twice.
You need a Bernie who starts off in his mid-30s and continues through his mid-50s - and has appeal to women. Blue eyes. I notice that Kerr has been writing him more attractive as the series goes on! I can't see Cranston for him but think they need a relative unknown with no prior associations. Myself, I think if they'd caught Philip Glenister just a bit younger, he'd be perfect. Loved him in "Island at War" and "Mars/Ashes."
Just shows what an impossible task it will be to please everybody. Much as I thought Glenister was fantastic in "Life on Mars", etc, he's not my idea of Bernie. Possibly Jason Isaacs could pull it off, but he's not 100% right either. He does have very nice blue eyes, though.
There have been quite a few really tough moments in the books so, if the scene you mention is even worse, I'll make sure I skim through that bit fast. Thanks for the warning.
Let me know what you think!
Bernie needs to be blond as well as blue-eyed, not to mention tall, so Jason Isaacs would really be far from what the author wrote (not to mention that he has no appeal for me whatsoever, though I do respect his acting - as you say, pleasing everyone would be impossible... And even the author seems to have gone from Bernie looking battered to making him MORE instantly attractive to women as the war progresses and he ages - quite the trick!). Who knows, maybe there's an unknown German actor out there who would be perfect. I imagine as usual they'd be drawing from an international cast.
I will.
Is Bernie blond? I don't remember that, but you might well be right. There's always Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. He's not really my idea of Bernie, but he is blond and an absolutely brilliant actor. I'm slightly besotted by him so I definitely wouldn't object. But maybe some of the German contingent on the board can suggest a wonderful German actor who'd fit.
Yes, Mads might work.
And I almost hate to say it, because he really IS too handsome (and probably too tall) for our rough around the edges Bernie, but I'd love a screen test for Armie.
The trick is to be both battered and humorous, and plausibly attractive to women, and hardly anyone ever got that as right as Bogart.
Unfortunately Armie is too young for older Bernie and probably even too young for younger Bernie.
You're right about Bogart. I think Kerr is both cine-literate and a fan of written detective fiction. The influences of Chandler and Hammett are clear. There was the story set in Cuba that was clearly a nod to "The Thin Man" and the earlier story set in Vienna which referenced the making of "The Third Man". The sly humour gave me such pleasure and it was a pure delight to recognise Kerr's love for what I also adore.
I thought the first book overused the film noir voice and strained similes almost to the point of caricature but then the author found just the right balance. The books keep getting more and more polished just as Kerr MUST be running out of material in Bernie's timeline. His knowledge of that era is staggering!
shareHair can be dyed. Just sayin'.
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Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you find the real tinsel underneath.
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Probably hiding in plain sight...I recall a declassified document released several years ago that attested to the Nazis plan to go underground soon before the end of WWII with the hopes of reviving a Fourth Reich in the future www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1179902/Revealed-The-secret-report-shows-Nazis-planned-Fourth-Reich--EU.html Many see the origins of the EU tied with the fascist ideals of a European federal superstate. I reckon key ex-Nazis transported via the Vatican ratlines to the West under the auspices of the CIA's "Operation Paperclip" assumed other identities and, if privy to Nazi secrets the Anglo-American establishment wanted, were taken in to work for black ops projects within the echelon of NATO, NASA, CIA, etc.
shareThe Marathon Man had Nazis in the seventies.
shareIf Mission Impossible can have Nazis' trying to take over the world plots (in fact, for the first four seasons there were always at least two Nazi episodes) The Man From U.N.C.L.E. can have them.
Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.
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