MARATHON MAN (1976): UNPACKING THE SCENE IN THE DIAMOND DISTRICT
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- Опубликовано: 6 авг 2024
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Now with enhanced closed captioning (cc).
Warning: Spoilers
When a viewer of this channel asked a provocative question regarding the diamond district scene in John Schlesinger’s Marathon Man, I decided it would be useful to answer the query in the form of a short video. There is an indelible scene in this film, on 47th Street, where we see what happens when a concentration camp survivor recognizes the notorious Nazi war criminal, Christian Szell. The question the viewer asked was why no one seems to treat the survivor’s claim-to have spotted Szell-with any seriousness. This video examines some of the reasons that Schlesinger’s film unfolds in this way, with no one really doing much to help the survivor…to the point that she is forced to personally intervene, to try to stop Szell from getting away.
#marathonman #williamgoldman #dustinhoffman #JohnSchlesinger
#LotteAndor #LottePalfi #diamonddistrict #HolocaustSurvivor #laurenceolivier 
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Agree about the woman on the street! She was SUPERB! It was also exemplary of movies from the 70s!
Right On !
Just 2 years later Olivier was playing a Nazi hunter in The Boys From Brazil
Lawrence Olivier is SO sinister in this film it's creepy beyond measure
Indubitably !
Your other comment said you stopped watching because the title included “unpacking.” I guess you saw enough to extrapolate Olivier’s performance was creepy before you stopped watching this vid.
And two years later, plays a Jewish Nazi hunter in "Boys from Brazil." Yeah, he was among the best.
@@brinsonharris9816 I've seen the film several times 😆 weird I know but people don't just watch trailers to form an opinion
@@yuckyoolthe best actor for me. The volume of work is unmatched.
Is it safe?!
That line scared the hell out of me as a kid
I said it once to my dentist just before he started filling a cavity. He had to stop for a minute because he had to laugh rather hard.
Thanks for the reminder. I knew there was a freaking repetitive out of context line but couldn't remember it. I have to get this movie on DVD it is one of the best.
@@Gentile108
I mentioned this film to my dentist and he denied having seen it! Why am I suspicious?
Zel was one of the most horrific people on film; no-one who has seen the dentist scene can forget it.
Great movie. The 70's are Hollywood's second golden age.
That’s true - the 1940’s was the first
And it's totally in the dumpster today.
You think so ?
True.
More so from 1972-1978.
You can not overestimate the sterling quality of this film. The high and constant tension underlying the film is relentless and I can almost feel myself becoming tense when I watch it and I have seen it many times.
It’s one of those late night portable tv in your bedroom as a kid your just a kid but you know it’s special.
I agree with the tense scenes, yes; the movie had too many holes and subplots. Arrogant William Goldman thinks everything he writes is the best. He's not a great screenwriter.
lol
@@flexiblestrategist9922 Have we seen you better him?
Schzel was known as "De Weiss Engel" ( The White Angel ) because of his thick white hair. He shaved it off as a disguise before he left his country to fly to New York ( And he was a fugitive in Paraguay, not Uruguay ).
This is a movie that really stays with you....I saw it in theater when it was first released. Made a big impact. Another film that really impacted me was "The Two of Us", a B&W French film about a young Jewish boy who goes to live with a Christian elderly couple in rural France in a bid to escape the Gestapo dragnet. The old farmer is played by that grizzled old actor (whose name escapes me) who also played Papa Bull in "The Train" and his supporting role was excellent. Especially when he kicked Burt Lancaster off of his steam engine yelling, "Get off of my train!" kicking him off the ladder and he hit the ground. A really touching film and it, like Marathon Man, has stayed with me for nearly 50 years now. That is the power of cinema.
Papa Boule (ball), not Bull... in The Train , was played by Michel Simon, one of french cinema major actors of the previous period
The Train is movie that I think is a great movie that has been forgotten
@@movid Thank you!
That was Michael Vale (Sam Breakstone, "time to make the doughnuts"). Superb character actor and a very nice person who was friends with my parents.
Terrifying character. Excellent actor Sir Lawrence Oliver.
Olivier’s acting in this scene was pretty phenomenal.
One of the greatest actors ever. The woman tiny part is so memorable, too.
Kudos to Olivier! Incredible actor!
I certainly have a notion to second THAT emotion !
Sir laurence olivier performance makes this movie a masterpiece great cast but olivier overshadow every one that is why he was the greatest actor of all time
Oh? Have you seen Dwayne Johnson?!
Yes my favourite, the volume of work and his professionalism is unmatched
Old Lady on 47th Street: I know that man. It can't be... Szell? Szell. Szell! Szell! Szell! My God! Stop him! Szell! Stop Szell! It's Szell. Der Weisse Engel! Der Weisse Engel is here. Oh my God, stop him. Stop him. Der Weisse Engel! Der Weisse Engel. He has to be stopped. My God! He gets away. Der Weisse Engel is here. Szell. Stop him! Der Weisse Engel... Oh please, help me. He's a beast. He's a murderer. You must stop him. Oh my God. There he goes! He's getting away!
*Absolutely gut-wrenching!!!
So this movie came out in 1976. The Thames documentary tv series The World at War came out in 1973. The producers really scored a coup when they were able to secure....Lawrence Olivier as the narrator. He does a brilliant job in that narration. Strongly recommend viewing. I think you can get all of the episodes on RUclips.
I apologize if people find this a gruesome or sadistic comment but let's face it: Dick Smith's makeup of Fred Stuthman's throat being slit is sublime and adds to the overall tenor and terror of the scene.
(Interestingly, Dick Smith brutally cut up Stuthman in 'The Sentinel' as well)
Plus that was one big a$$ knife, no messing about there 😳
Yes the pose and camera angle gave it this over-the-top horror flick feel.
German actress Lotte Palfi-Andor had not done any stage work since 1952. She was chosen for this role in 1976 by director John Schlesinger for authenticity. Her brief performance in "Marathon Man" was stunning.
Amazingly, she appeared in 3 films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Casablanca (1942) & All That Jazz (1979). Casablanca (1942) was the winner.
One of her memorable roles was in Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart (1942), where she was "the woman who has to sell her diamonds" to escape the Nazis.
Ironically, in Marathon Man (1976) she was "the woman on 47th street," who began to chase the Nazi Szell trying to fence his stolen diamonds.
Another unsung actress was the magnificent Luana Anders. Luana played a young girl named Joan Goss in a "One Step Beyond" episode "The Voice." (on RUclips). Her performance in court at the end of that episode was powerful, creepy & impressive. She should've become a major star.
She was a close friend of both actress Sally Kellerman & Jack Nicholson.
She did appear in many of Jack's classic films in small parts. Jack even paid her a personal tribute during his 1998 Academy Award-winning speech for "As Good As It Gets." That's one hell of an endorsement. RIP Lotte & Luana. You were both memorable.
The plotline was Schzel's brother was killed in a car crash in New York, so he was forced to come out of hiding to collect his fortune which was stored in a safebox in a Manhattan bank.
That's the first scene in the film that I never understood 'til now.
This was the film where Olivier reputedly said to Hoffman "Try acting Dear boy" after Dustin had finished jogging!
Will never forget “reviewing “ this scene with a then acquaintance who was the son of a repatriated Nazi scientist . We didn’t have it on a VCR but we were both so mesmerized by the scene that it was emblazoned on us and in us and we could act out the lines and the parts. The OSS (precursor to the CIA ) had repatriated many German scientists . This son of one knew that my father was a scholar and researcher of the Holocaust so his “performance” of the parts seemed to me to be a taunt somehow eerily enough . He strangely replaced the fictional name of the dentist with that of Klaus Barbie.
Two thoughts. Having graduated from H. S. IN 1969, I learned barely anything about the holacost. I remember seeing Marathon Man when it came out and it came to me it was not history but there were still living persons who experienced these horrors amongst we the ignorant. The diamond district scene brought me the closest to this reality. When in 1978 I took a position in NYC and found myself in the Diamond district. This reality became more palpable to me. This all led me on my quest to know more about this terrible time in European history, Secondly, I think I have this correct, a story about Hoffman and Olivier working together on the film. Both men were of different generational acting schools. Hoffman, to be more authentic in his role, would starve himself and not sleep to better act his scenes. Seeing these extreme measures Olivier seeing what Hoffman went through asked Hoffman why he didn't simply 'act'.
Great post. I have not meant to steal your thunder as I left my comment before reading yours.
In 1976, New York was a city in crisis. So, the reaction of the other citizens in the diamond district shouldn't be shocking at all... Taxi Driver had the same realistic coldness of New Yorkers during those times. 🤔
Great point
They had no idea what she was yelling about.
It’s a different generation from WW2.
Just thought she was a nut, which NYC had plenty of
@johnhaas3270 Old Lady on 47th Street : I know that man. It can't be... Szell? Szell. Szell! Szell! Szell! My God! Stop him! Szell! Stop Szell! It's Szell. Der Weisse Engel! Der Weisse Engel is here. Oh my God, stop him. Stop him. Der Weisse Engel! Der Weisse Engel. He has to be stopped. My God! He gets away. Der Weisse Engel is here. Szell. Stop him! Der Weisse Engel... Oh please, help me. He's a beast. He's a murderer. You must stop him. Oh my God. There he goes! He's getting away!
This scene gives me goosebumps and chills no matter how many times I watch it! I was 12 or 13 when this movie came out. Now I'm 60.
@@johnhaas3270
Had?
A city in crisis yes but I loved it !. music, film, theatre, writing , the Arts were flourishing.. when artists could afford to live in the city.. loved it with all its crisis
Holey Moley!
I saw this film in 1977 as a teenager for free as a student at the University of Toronto.
I really like your comment that "No small part in a film is ever unimportant (sic)" This shows that you truly understand film!~
The old Holocaust surviviors are both really great. Especially the older woman. 😄
Never let the Nazi's get away with crime! Especially in 2024!!
We had either CBC or CTV back then. Neither would carry this movie. We got cable TV. As a young kid I remember cable was showing Minot ND as lead station. Then they change it to Detroit. A Detroit station had an all night movie. I remember it as they had the Moon start at the 9 O'clock and end at the 4AM. So basically the Moon went across the sky as the hours went by. Then one night they said. The midnight show will be Marathon Man. We watch this show on USA Network knowing Canada networks would not carry it. It is an excellent movie.
Loved your analysis of this movie. It is one of my many favorites from that period. Just another example of how a great film doesn’t require CGI or Special Effects.
It had the best Makeup Artist who has ever lived , Dick Smith (the Exorcist, The Godfather) who created working special makeup effects before there were special makeup effects. Seeing a throat slit with blood flowing so realistically , was never seen up until that time. Dick even designed special Dentures for Hoffman which he wore from the first scene. this way, they could show his tooth being drilled into in close up without damaging his real teeth. . For the scene where Roy Scheider's palm is cut open on camera, he designed a palm prosthetic made of gelatine, which looked exacly like skin and could actually be cut into on camera with blood tubes feeding the flow. Dick Smith was my Mentor and created some pioneering work.
Ah, I see he also worked on Taxi Driver. Great practical effects there as well. Thanks for the info.
A very good, insightful, and cogent analysis of such an iconic movie scene.
Thank you.
One of my favorite scenes in Marathon Man.
Me too !
In the seventys, I was invited to a private concert in Los Angeles with a friend. I was amazed at how short these people were, and it turned out they were European jews. The elderly ladies rolled up their sleeves to reveal the tattooed numbers on their arms. Too this day, I can see myself looking down at these elderly women and was speechless. I promised myself I would visit Germany and see the camps. I did in 1981. IT was my final bike ride all over Europe. TOO THIS DAY I TRUST NO ONE. I'M ALONE NOW STILL HEATHLY @ 81 YEARS OLD. I GIVE A SCHOLARSHIP EVERY TO NEWPORT HIGH ON HOW HISTORY EFFECTS OUR FUTURE.😢😢😢
HBO aired this film in the early eighties. I was young and didn’t really understand it much…but the dentist scene struck the same fear into me AS MUCH as Jaws did - causing people to not enter the water ever again! I’m still to this day frightened when I see the Novocain needle coming my way.
I originally sat down to watch this movie without knowing anything about it....... absolutely amazing movie. Your analysis about viewers reactions to certain scenes are spot on. Wish more people knew about this movie.
Great film with three legendary actors..Olivier, Hoffman and my favorite Roy Scheider.
In a film loaded with astounding scenes, I'm glad I stumbled across this analysis of maybe its MOST astounding scene. (And yes, the restaurant scene is ANOTHER great one!)
Glad to know you enjoyed the video. That scene is particularly memorable and powerful. Thanks for your kind note.
A great movie and one that I've loved since I was in my teens. Thanks for this excellent review of Diamond District scene. There's was so much in there to think about!
Fun fact: Outside my building there's a homeless man who regularly screams outside that one of our residents is a paedophile. It's easy to assume he must crazy. But what if we're just gaslighting him, like in the movie?
Phenomenal extract. Lucid and insightful. Great job!
Dear Hollywood, can you somehow replicate movies like this? Love Old Guy that doesn't need to see another super hero retread
Awesome video, thank you! Saw this with my Dad in the theater the weekend it was released. Unnerved me. I was training to make the high school cross-country team and thought it was actually about running.
My Dad was friends with a tailor on our street. I'll never forget his hollow eyes and the numbers on his arm. The 1000 yard stare. A very nice man.
This was a great 360 look at this scene. And the way you spun the themes and setting out into the era it was made, the history of the subject etc...was masterful. I jotted down half a dozen things to look into just from this video. Looking forward to going back through your previous videos.
I have watched Marathon Man many more times than Midnight Cowboy. The thing I loved, the thing I related to, was Dustin Hoffman's character being so alone, so alone in the world. Running, running, running away.
I have always been impressed by the staging of Szell's getaway from the scene. 12:47 His taxicab flees west across 6th avenue while every figure outside on the street appears to be running in the opposite direction, towards the distracting chaos that just occurred on Diamond & Jewelry Way.
Sir Laurence Oliver could play any scene a lover a nazi a good or bad Guy. He was a legend Actor
excellent dissection of this most amazing sequence
I love this channel. I wish you were able to post more often but then again quality takes time.
This is a well thought out review of the scene and of the topic of the Holocaust.
Excellent rundown. Very well analyzed. I am compelled to watch it again. I have a 20 year old son who I'm hoping to get him to understand...to watch. He's not there yet, but this is one of the better movies of the 70s. To me, the scenes described in this breakdown are quite powerful because years ago (the 90s), I worked near the Diamond District... a block away from it. I had my lunch occasionally, at Bergers.
Sir Laurence Olivier was indeed a master of his art. This character he played with such impeccable intensity that one almost forgets he is the man from those classic Shakespeare dramas. He created a horrific template of an evil here so perfectly it is scarier than Hannibal Lector.
It’s an incredible movie. Nail biting suspense, from an equally incredible novel.
As I do when I take off my hat, you make a good point !
Thanks alot for your intriguing discussion of this section of Marathon Man (which has been one of my favourite films ever since I first saw it). I like that you treat the structure/ form given to the section by the script writer Goldman. I see it more clearly now: (((all the other characters are dead, the final goal is not to let get away Scell with his plan ( old lady calls himout. Her fall in front of the taxi empties the scene for ( the direct confrontation between the male survivor and the criminal which no one must observe because ( it is laid into the hands of the main opposite character, Levy, to catch and punish Szell, fittingly indirectly through that one own hand/blade. )))) What a powerful build-up of tension and motivation. - Shalom.
Thank you for a superb, precise study of a scene; great detail, great research, great background.
Nicely done analysis.
Great film. But one goof I noticed...as a New Yorker...is that to get to the bank on Madison Avenue uptown the cab should have immediately made a right turn onto 6th Avenue.
Excellent analysis!!
That old diamond dealer with the concentration camp tattoo played creepy rolls in campy horror movies as I recall. One was where he played a mortician.
The camp dynamic is re-enacted in a contemporary context with weak victims, monstrosities, helpless onlookers and death.
Great analysis
This is kind of a weird perverse Seinfeld scene. I could see this happening to Kramer. "No, I'm Doctor Martin van Nostrand". You hear the three chords...
An amazing film not known by many.
BTW: While in one in one Jewelry store the visible store address is over the door is 25. This would make sense; 25 East 47 St. In Manhattan. The heart of "The Diamond District".
In the other store the visible store address over the door is 36-45. This is most likely filmed in a Queens jewelry store. 36-45 would not be a legitimate Manhattan address but more likely somewhere in Queens. Possibly Long Island City near 36th St..
Excellent tutorial- thanks❤
Great analysis, nice to revisit and scrutinize this important film. Olivier was such a great Nazi, juxtaposed against the weaker Nazi hunter in the lesser film Boys from Brazil.
Yea I have t seen this film since it came out but this is the scene I remember more than anything else !
53 and caught this on HBO as a kid and this scene always fascinated me. It’s a great cinematic sequence.
Forget any horror movie characters, Laurence Oliviers character is scariest,
Hes real, methodical, deliberate and relishes inflicting pain.
Need to see this film.
Outstanding.
It seems to me that ignoring a highly agitated elderly woman would be a typical New York reaction. People wouldn’t be phased in the least by that kind of behaviour
Excellent channel.
This is an interesting take. Was relatively young when I first watched this movie, well before starting out as a amateur WWII buff. Even then, knowing what a monster he was, I felt no sympathy for Szell. None at all. And as I learn more about this evil, I kind of wished Babe would have kept some of the diamonds to use for charity. Maybe part of it was because, as it turns out, it was safe...
Thanks for the dickipedia article, as if I had no idea what happened.
Excellent
Grateful for this analysis. Watched this scene over 30 times. Maybe not intended, but can't escape the thought that two more Jewish people died by just being near Szell and recognizing him over 30 years later.
I always think of this movie when I go to the dentist.
Please do an analysis of the post-opera scene with Doc, Nicole and the mysterious bouncing ball. I've been wondering for years what that means.
Zell's nickname, "The white angel" makes him sound like a big time cocaine dealer.
Nonsense to say we all feel sympathy for Szell in jewellery scene. I remember watching it and hoping he is caught . The arrogance of walking around to see how much a diamond is worth.
Thank you
reactive abuse. it's easy to duck under the radar as an abuser when the abused looks crazy on the streets. flipping their lid. people disregard what appears crazy. even if it contains validity.
I watched a second of your Marathon Man scene breakdown videos and enjoyed both. I do have to comment, though, on your omissions about Holocaust TV and film that you referenced at the end of the video.
It seems like you forgot about 'The Diary of Anne Frank" from 1959 and 'The Pawnbroker' from 1964. And what really got me was the omission of the TV minseries 'QBVII' in 1974 where the antagonist is a Polish doctor in a fictitious Polish death camp named Jadwiga - on obvious reference to Mengele at Auschwitz which is really the foundation for Zel - a dentist rather than doctor. Finally, there was the 'The Boys from Brazil' from 1978, a fictional account of the demise of Mengele in America much like the demise of Zel in Central Park.
One last thought.... I agree with your comment about the beginning of Marathon Man being long and confusing. I agree somewhat through the aging Jew vs. Nazi brother drag race on a NYC avenue was compelling and has become in later years my second favorite moment in the film (versus the JFK airport fairway where Zel arrives in the U.S. and comments that America always thought they had God on their side though 'now they're not so sure'. Compare MM to what might be the best film made in the last 50 years - Oppenheimer. It took me more than two times to understand what was happening but it was so worth it!
It's a very creative juxtaposition of greed and risk.
Incredible movie!
Absolutely unforgettable scene
The narrator of this video has it totally wrong about the movie viewers feeling scared for him (Olivier). What most of us were feeling was that we couldn't wait for him to get his just desserts.
A great movie very well done
Awesome, awesome film!
Superb film,it really is!!
Fantastic film
Zell was afraid that Nicky Santaro and his "Hole in the wall" gang would find out he had millions of dollars worth of diamonds and go to NYC to rob him.
It’s like this - I think: we spend a disproportionate amount of time asking ourselves, “Could I have gotten away with it?” We therefore are fascinated by he who has lost, she who’s chased, they who failed despite having prepared and done their best.
The ethics behind the pursuit are not an issue.
Will they find you out?
It is a movie to remember
Top 5 movie of the 70's, great movie
the Godfather, Dirty Harry, the Exorcist, Deer Hunter.....
@@davidburke2697 Jaws
Top 10 for sure
@@brgreg8725 yeah, the 70's have so many to choose from
Along with; The French Connection, Sorcerer and The Godfather I and II.
This was an enigmatic film , with its scenes implying something big , some major piece of a grand puzzle about to be revealed . Oddly , there was something poignant in the character portrayed by Marta Keller . She obviously had her usefulness , her beauty , to lure Dustin Hoffmann’s character into something - which was never satisfyingly explained . But Marta’s character was the most vulnerable , or so it seemed to me , maybe because of the sex scene where she was on her back on the floor , she looked so frail or something , arms above her head , boobs and ribs pointing toward the ceiling . And as if to emphasize how expendable that she was , the bad guys snuffed out her life as easy as putting out a match , with Marta’s beautiful and vulnerable face lying on her back , but her eyes rolled back into her skull in death - and she was an otherwise healthy young woman .
You did a good job on one level. However I think you read (or misread?) more into the scene than was intended. I never feel any sympathy for Szell. And it's never gone into exactly why everyone ignored the survivor, however if you go back to Midnight Cowboy (the previous Schlesinger-Hoffman-NYC film), we see New Yorkers ignoring everything in general that happens on the street, including a man who just dropped dead. I assumed your analysis would touch on Olivier's great performance; how he adapts the persona of a survivor himself. You didn't really address how unlikely it would be that Szell would go to the heart of the diamond district unless he had no idea it had many Jews who may (and would) recognize him. Only to find out the value of diamonds---not even his own--didn't really make sense, except as a vehicle for survivors to confront him. Had I been there I would have taken Lotte Palfi Andor (who was also in Casablanca) seriously. Finally I don't think the use of the term Holocaust has any bearing on the actual events which were widely known by the time of this film. Technically "The Holocaust" refers to all victims of the Nazis while Shoah refers specifically to the Jewish genocide. The irony is the real "White Angel" Mengele was still hiding in plain sight in Sao Paulo, Brazil until he drowned in 1979.
Never felt sympathy for the character Zel but for his victims.It shows how criminally dishonest these Nazis were.As though they would not just torture and murder but steal aswell.
This Film was another New York Classic of that Era and for some of us a film that could be watched many times….a classic.
Well done. Have you seen Apt Pupil? Another great movie. Similar situation. Dir by Bryan Singer.
Hmmm. Not sure I agree completely with this reading - specifically, why no one will help this woman. First, even if they - the crowd - collectively understood what she was screaming about (and that's unlikely - we can't really know the clarity to confusion ratio in the crowd), the vast majority of citizens have neither the authority or the needed physical capability to apprehend someone. Most people understand that it's a physically risky move to intercede in such a situation, one which may come out very badly for them. So why risk it? The point of this terrifically riveting scene - and it certainly is worth talking about - is that we must acknowledge the degree of helplessness within a random crowd. They do not act boldly if they do not share a common understanding of what is at stake.
Hitchcock (for one) did use this technique of suspense for the fate of a villain. Just a small nit-pick, which is in no way intended as any criticism of your excellent overview. I don't think the suggestion was that the elderly lady was actually hit by the car. I think the editing shows she reacted in shock and and instinctively threw herself away from the car, falling to the ground. This explains why she is then shown unsteady, but continuing her imploring those around her to respond to Schell's presence.
That's b.s., I never felt trepidation for Zell or hoped he would get away! I wanted him to get caught!!!!
top-notch.
Most kind of you to say. Thanks. ☺