One of the first major TV movie events (1974) concerned a case of libel in which a best-selling book "The Holocaust" named a knighted doctor as a concentration camp monster, Dr. Adam Kelno. A Polish Christian doctor who was in a camp as a prisoner (under the scrutiny of Nazi staff) Kelno claimed he was responsible for saving and sparing Jews who might have been butchered or gassed otherwise. But as 25+ years have passed, Kelno has led a modest, unselfish life and now, the author of the book, Abe Cady, needs to find living witnesses who can prove Kelno was no saint. My only beef with this (I didn't read QB VII) is my surprise that Cady, a street-smart writer and his sharp publisher (Dan O'Herlihy) would name a real, living person as an inhuman butcher and then worry about being sued and then, try finding living and written proof. Ben Gazzara as Cady, Anthony Hopkins as Kelno and Leslie Caron as his wife are superb in their roles. The story (running just over 5 hrs), is more of a saga including the lives of Cady and Kelno's family for a quarter century before converging at the titular QB VII (Queen's Bench, Courtroom 7) for a jury trial. While the story periodically dips into the strained family relations of both men, the heart of the story is engrossing, enhanced by on-location filming (including England, Europe and Israel) and a moving score by the late and great Jerry Goldsmith. Robert Stephens and Anthony Quayle are more than convincing as attorneys and Juliet Mills as Cady's wife and Joseph Wiseman as Cady's father both shine. I am not of the Jewish faith, but the film still packs a punch to the heart and is still profoundly moving.

Ground rules first. This masterpiece (won a half dozen Emmys) is not merely a lost miniseries from the 70s, but rather it is the first miniseries of its kind, the template from which all later efforts came. And what an effort it was! Adapted from an international bestseller about a non-Jewish physician who ends up getting special treatment in a concentration camp by "assisting" with medical procedures. When the camp is liberated, said doctor becomes prominent in England, and he (and his family) enjoy the benefits and respect that brings. Until his reputation -- what he may or may not have actually done in that camp -- is challenged in England by an upstart American who is convinced that atrocities were committed. OMG what a cast. Here we have, in a performance of astonishing depth, Anthony Hopkins long before he became knighted, long before Hannibal. And Ben Gazarra giving the performance of his life in counterpoint to the doctor that Hopkins was portraying, as the American upstart. The story engages from the start and just gets better. And better. And better. Today it seems clichéd to have the finale take place in a courtroom but as I said this was the FIRST miniseries, and such criticisms have no substance. I recently saw this beginning to end for the first time in over 30 years, and was again stunned by the quality and the nuances. Like many of the productions that I focus on here on IMDb, it is a one of kind, something so special that to compare it is to misunderstand it. See it.

Excellent performances from Anthony Hopkins and Leslie Caron only go so far to help this miniseries overcome both over-length and the despicable character portrayed by Ben Gazzara. Are we suppose to applaud this jerk who forces someone to relive the horrors of the Holocast to serve his own ends and allows him to be blackmailed with the threat of the loss of his family even it he feels it is in the course of justice. Where is that man's justice? Not saying that what the other character is accused of isn't reprehensible too. Lee Remick is listed as a star of this but her appearance here is strictly window dressing added for marquee value. The production values are high and this is a good example of when great care was taken with network miniseries and they ruled the airwaves.

I write this from a distance of 31 years after the fact. Time colors ones perspective. Anthony Hopkins is one of my all time favorite actors and I hated to see him as one of the doctors who experimented horrifically on Jewish patients. Nevertheless, it is a part designed for at least an Emmy nomination and I feel that Hopkins deserved one. Is it remotely possible that he was deliberately overlooked BECAUSE of the part he played? Perhaps. I would liked to have given the film a higher rating but feel it was sufficiently flawed to justify the 7 I gave it. Here are my reasons for doing so. 1. Abe Cady was an SOB throughout most of Part 1. His father dies and a single visit to bury his father in Israel changes his entire persona virtually overnight. It does not ring true. 2. Samantha Cady is the good guy in this and she is totally abandoned by her husband, son and the filmmakers; a fate she does not deserve. It is as if she were put in the film simply to produce a son who deserts his mother and is destined to die as punishment for Abe's early transgressions. 3. The important parts of the film are the trial sequences, a fair portion of which was devoted to exposing Jewish atrocities which had nothing to do with Cady's charges against Adam Kelno. 4. Unless I am mistaken, there was a point where Chief Justice Gilroy (Jack Hawkins) allows testimony subject to later connection which connection was never made. 5. I fail to understand why the Polish woman(?) revealed to Abe Cady the name of the man she loved who was in possession of a record that would destroy Kelno. 6. Unless I am mistaken, David Shawcross, Cady's lawyer played by Dan O'Herlihy, is only made aware of those records at the final moment in the trial and yet, is suddenly so thoroughly familiar with it that he is able to destroy Kelno's credibility point by point in the most dramatic sequence in the film. I suspect that if I had read the Leon Uris book, I would have given the film an even lower rating.