Babe - Dustin Hoffman - is a doctoral student in history at Columbia. He is honoring his father, in a way, because Dad was a brilliant professor who fell victim to Joe McCarthys Red hunt. Babe is also a runner, training for a marathon. One day at the school library, Babe spies a beautiful lady, Elsa, and is relentless in getting her to go out with him. Meanwhile, a former Nazi hiding in Brooklyn is killed in a traffic accident. This prompts a small group of CIA agents to suspect the Nazis more famously evil brother Szell - Laurence Olivier - will arrive in NY soon. He does. He's after diamonds held in a bank box. Unknown to Babe, his brother dies as a government agent, with Elsa maybe the traitor. Szell suspects Babe knows all, being a brother, and tortures him with dentist tools. What is Dr Szell doing? This exciting film is hard to explain but is basically an escaped Nazi fighting for stolen jewels from Auschwitz 30 years after the fact. As Szell, Olivier is terrifying and ruthless. Amazing how great actors can change gears so effortlessly. Hoffman is also fine as the man who knows very little but is tortured anyway. But, his running ability helps him well in the final analysis. If you enjoy films of political intrigue, you can't help but like MM.
Review of Marathon Man
