The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin

(pb; 1976)

From the back cover

“Scattered throughout the world, ninety-four men. Each one a civil servant. Each one approaching retirement. Each one harmless, unknown to the other. Each one marked for death.

“Hiding in the jungles of Brazil, a Nazi scientist with a diabolical plan to create a new Hitler─and the deadly means to carry it out.”

Review

Boys is an intense, sharp and entertaining B-movie take on horrific world events, with a role-shifting cat-and-mouse game between Lieberman, the avenging Jew, and Mengele, the homicidal scientist, as the structure. Levin’s prose is tight, the characters well-developed, the action succinct and gripping, the pathos affecting, and the scenario─wild as it is─even more plausible when re-read in 2020 (I read it decades ago, when I was a teenager). This is an excellent, memorable thriller, one worth owning.

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The resulting film was released stateside on October 6, 1978. Franklin J. Schaffner directed it, from a screenplay by Heywood Gould.

Laurence Olivier played Ezra Lieberman. Gregory Peck played Dr. Josef Mengele. James Mason played Eduard Seibert. Lilli Palmer played Esther Lieberman. Bruno Ganz played Professor Bruckner.

Steve Guttenberg, billed as Steven Guttenberg, played Barry Kohler. Denholm Elliott played Sidney Beynon. Walter Gotell played Mundt. Rosemary Harris played Mrs. Doring.

Uta Hagen played Frieda Maloney. John Dehner played Henry Wheelock. Anne Meara played Mrs. Curry.

Jeremy Black played Jack Curry / Simon Harrington / Erich Doring / Bobby Wheelock.

The Counselor by Cormac McCarthy

(pb; 2013: screenplay)

From the back cover

"In early 2012 it was announced that Cormac McCarthy had written his first original screenplay - news which provoked huge excitement, a swift deal and the appointment of Ridley Scott to direct. But this is no ordinary screenplay. This is a work of extraordinary imagination which draws on many of the themes of McCarthy's work as well as taking it to new dark places. It is also written with great descriptive passages counteracting the dialogue, so the reader is given the full experience of the McCarthy prose. It is the story of a lawyer, the Counselor, a man who is so seduced by the desire to get rich, to impress his fiancée Laura, that he becomes involved in a drug-smuggling venture that quickly takes him way out of his depth. His contacts in this are the mysterious and probably corrupt Reiner and the seductive Malkina, so exotic her pets of choice are two cheetahs. As the action crosses the Mexican border, things become darker, more violent and more sexually disturbing than the Counselor has ever imagined."


Review

McCarthy’s excellent and word-spare screenplay is not for those who like their reading optimistic and warm. Its characters are distinctly McCarthy-esque ─ often cynical and cruel ─  and their dialogue and actions are appropriately bleak, given the harsh, deadly realities that surround them. This is one of my favorite films of 2013, and reading this further confirmed my love of McCarthy’s stark writing and word-lean crime tales. This is one of the best pieces of writing I have read this year.

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The film, later retitled The Counsellor, was released stateside on October 25, 2013. Ridley Scott directed it.

Michael Fassbender played Counselor. Penelope Cruz played Laura. Cameron Diaz played Malkina. Javier Bardem played Reiner. Brad Pitt played Westray.

Rosie Perez played Ruth. Bruno Ganz played Diamond Dealer. Dean Norris played Buyer. Goran Visnjic played Banker. An uncredited John Leguizamo played Coverall Man Randy. Sam Spruell played Wireman.