A true classic from my youth, both the book and the movie. Watching the movie again in 2018, it holds up well but it's hard not to imagine a bit of modern film technique touch-ups here and there. I only have a couple of criticisms of this fine film that I enjoyed thoroughly each time I have seen it. It's just corny to see a movie about Germany yet hear barely a word of German, and even worse, have everyone speaking English with phony German accents. It would have added tremendously to the verisimilitude of the movie had some of the speeches been spoken in German. I think that filmmakers underestimate the intelligence of viewer when they do this, either that or they know the audience well enough to understand that most slobs don't want to listen to a foreign language.The music is pretty awful throughout the film. It's like the borrowed most of the music from a porn flick. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the story and it's one that towers above most of the rubbish of most films of this genre. Today it's all about how many people you can kill inside of idiot plots that all seem basically the same.

This thriller should go down as a classic. It has a convincing story a rare thing in movies that try to blend historical fact and fiction. It's tense from beginning to end and doesn't have annoying red herrings or plot twists.The casting is perfect. Maximillian Schell is ideal as the Nazi war criminal. Jon Voight is surprisingly convincing as a German accent and all. Good use of European supporting cast to avoid a fake feel.Good on location feel to it. Liked the evocative score too.It's one of the best thrillers about WWII subject matter even though it is set after the war.

Certainly not as spellbinding as it's horrifying plot promises, but this is nonetheless an exciting, well made thriller. German journalist Jon Voight uncovers a plot to utilize Nazi ingenuity(?) to aid Egypt in its plan to annihilate Isreal in the early 1960s. Hooking up with Isreali intelligence, he hunts all over Germany and Austria for lunatic ex-Concentration Camp Commandant Maximilian Schell. Directed with more finesse than usual by Ronald Neame (a great film editor who became a decidedly journeyman director) and featuring some stellar cinematography by Oswald Morris. Voight is pretty good and Schell is decidedly nasty. Shmuel Rodensky has a cameo as Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. While the film is set in and around Germany, all the players speak English with a German accent. The music by none other than Andrew Lloyd Webber includes the song "Christmas Dream" sung by Perry Como. Maria Schell plays Voight's mother and Mary Tamm, Derek Jacobi & Günter Meisner are in it too.

THE ODESSA FILE is filmed in authentic European locations which give the story an added touch of realism, the kind needed in this sort of espionage thriller. JON VOIGHT does an excellent job of portraying a journalist who comes across a journal vividly describing what happened at a Nazi internment camp during the last days of WWII. He decides to go on a personal hunt for the much hated man he believes caused the death of some 80,000 Jews (MAXIMILIAN SCHELL). In doing so, he also reveals another purpose that will come as a surprise at the story's conclusion.But first he searches for "The Odessa File," full of documents on a band of former SS German soldiers who are now operating a secret society of former war criminals who still hold firmly to their former beliefs. The plot thickens once he begins to tackle the assignment, pitted against members who want him out of the way lest their true identities be revealed.Not quite as brilliant as THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, it's a Frederick Forsyth thriller that deserves the attention of anyone looking for an intelligent, well-paced thriller that benefits from excellent cinematography and a good background score with some music courtesy of Andrew Lloyd Webber long before his big show biz fame. The action scenes are handled for maximum effect and the final confrontation between Voigt and Schell makes for a satisfying climax.