 The Man in the Glass Booth
Introduction: The Man in the Glass Booth suffers under bland treatment by director Arthur Hiller and various pieces of stilted dialog, but the blistering lead performance of Maximilian Schell gives this effort life that it wouldn't have had otherwise. Plot Summary: This section is going to be brief, because I don't want to divulge much of the plot, since it sort of unfolds like a mystery. (It's not a very good mystery, in those regards, but you don't want me to give you spoilers just the same.) The first half of this film takes place in New York where a talkative and animated Jewish industrialist (Maximilian Schell) is getting increasingly paranoid that he is being watched. Whether or not his suspicions have any merit remains to be seen. This man is often seen making candid remarks about the Jewish people and their history ... and making snide remarks to his confidant Charlie. However, his fears inevitably prove to be true --- he is arrested (or abducted) by Israeli secret service agents who want to put him on trial for Nazi war crimes. But he's Jewish, right? How can he be accused of war crimes? Clearly, there's more to this man that meets the eye. Commentary: This movie doesn't get exciting until the trial scene, and that's only thanks to Maximilian Schell's absolutely furious performance (he doesn't hire a defense attorney, so the trial scene has monologues galore). Previously to that, the movie was slow, boring and only moderately interesting dialog. Even during the trial scene, the dialog was usually hit-or-miss --- at times, it was stilted, unnatural and pretentious. However, at other times it is quite clever and thought-provoking. All the time, Schell's wild performance gave everything life. I was planning on accusing him of over-acting (he probably was), but it's this "over-acting" that saved the movie. At the same time, his wildness still ought to have been pruned considerably --- you never doubt for a second that Schell is just an actor who (incidentally) was far too young for this role. The film unfolds rather well, which is why I was being careful for divulging much of the plot to you. Despite a few significant hiccups here and there, I give the script a hearty thumbs up. However, I don't think Arthur Hiller ever was a good director. He's fair at best. Even his most critically acclaimed movie The Hospital is only considered as such because of the biting script. He could get a project finished and in the can, but he could never take a commanding presence over his movies. Note that Hiller is also the director who did what you might have thought impossible and made a horrible movie out of one of the most beautiful Broadway musicals in existence Man of La Mancha. You might consider him borderline evil for that one. The Man in the Glass Booth had much of the right elements in place, but it falls considerably short. It's oftentimes flat and it's poorly paced --- it would have played better with more striking visuals, better flow, and more convincing supporting actors among other things. Instead, Hiller seems to rely solely on the decent script (that still needed some edits) and Schell's invigorating performance. Well, it still manages to be an entertaining movie but with glaring flaws. Concluding Remarks: If I was a critic on Ebert & Roeper I would give this movie a thumbs up but barely. The reason for that is Schell's electrifying performance and the decent script make the movie quite entertaining. The crippling downfalls is that it's all very stagey and the cinematography falls woefully flat. Date reviewed: April 5, 2007 FINAL SCORE: B-
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