The Boys from Brazil

The Boys from Brazil (1978) starring Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, Lilli Palmer. The year is 1978, and former Nazi doctor Josef Mengele (Peck) is alive and well in Paraguay. He has perfected human cloning, and has created 94 perfect copies of Hitler, who are now 13 years old and have been farmed out to adoptive couples around Europe and the United States. Mengele's plan is for a Fourth Reich, presumably with one of his little Hitlers leading it. He is opposed by Nazi-hunting Jew Franz Lieberman (Olivier), who gets wind of the plot and, despite his advanced age, vows to do what he can to stop it. The ultimate showdown between Mengele and Lieberman takes place in a farmhouse in Pennsylvania, and it's pretty disappointing. At the end of the movie we are left with Mengele dead, Lieberman hospitalized, and 94 clones of Hitler loose in the world. It's interesting to speculate what a clone of Hitler might end up doing in this world, but the movie never gets that far. It's entertaining enough, but great art it ain't. (No subtitles are supplied, but closed captions save the day for the hard of hearing.) Grade: C+