I am amazed that none of the reviews of this movie on IMDb mention that this film … as written by Robert Shaw … is a ro·man à clef (look it up if you do not know) … for the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was arrested in 1960 by the Masada and taken to Israel for trial. He was in fact was the "Man in the Glass Booth".Yes Maximillian Schell was off the charts in this performance … but the greatest facet to the film is that it replays Eichmann's trial. Eichmann was amazing in his conviction that all of the Final Solution was logical and justified and pedestrian … and we should all see this for what it is worth.Yes … I was totally annoyed by the Arthur Goldman character in the first half of the film … but I was mesmerized by the way this film played out. Schell should have beat Nicholson for the academy award! He is a massively underrated actor (see him in Judgement in Nuremberg and you will agree).

The Man in The Glass Booth has finally been delivered to the home theater in the form of a DVD released by Kino as part of their series on The American Film Theater. The DVD hits the street on Tuesday, July 22. I have managed to catch a glimpse of this disk and the picture quality is quite good considering it is a non-restored film from 1975. No need to go into how great this flick is as it's been well documented over time.

Saw Man in the Glass Booth eons ago, on Hershey, PA, public TV. I'd heard of it, knew Robert (Quint in Jaws) Shaw had something to do with it.But according to imdb, Shaw gets no credit here. Booth is a metaphorical rendering of the Trial of Adolf Eichmann, most-wanted Nazi war criminal. Point of play I think was to dramatize Hannah Arendt's notion of the "banality of evil." Schell is the wacked-out war crimes defendant who seems more than eager to resume his ghastly activity from the dock; he is utterly at a loss to understand why you shouldn't be able to wipe out entire races of people. Lois Nettleton's his appointed attorney, who may be seduced by Schell's grotesque charms.I'd reckon this play's a bit dated now, & even the 2002 war crimes tribunal in the Hague provides no real I.D. After all, getting there, as they say, is half the fun, & well before Eichmann went on trial, Israel had apologized to the world community & promised never to sneak into another country & kidnap one of its citizens.

This is my all-time favorite film. Maximilian Schell's Oscar-nominated performance completely dominates everything else on the screen. His long courtroom speeches are both disturbing and riveting. This is based on a book and play by Robert Shaw, who'll you'll probably remember as an actor from "The Sting", "Jaws" and "A Man for All Seasons". He disowned the movie version because of changes made. It has been too many years since I've seen the film, but I have re-read both book and play this month. I think a significant change to Col. Dorff's heritage was probably his objection. While I see his point, I think he overreacted. The film itself is a bit slow moving and everyone else is overpowered by Mr. Schell's breathtaking performance. But those flaws didn't kick in for me until I had seen the film a dozen or more times. It is a must see for Maximilian Schell's work- one of the greatest performances ever filmed.