THE MAN IN THE GLASS BOOTH

US, 1975, 117 minutes, Colour.
Maximilian Schell, Lois Nettleton, Lawrence Pressman, Luther Adler, Lloyd Bochner.
Directed by Arthur Hiller.

The Man in the Glass Booth was a presentation of the American Film Theatre, a project of the mid-1970s which filmed a number of prominent plays including Brecht’s Galileo, Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, John Osborne’s Luther. This film was based on a play by Robert Shaw (the actor best known for such films as Jaws and The Sting). Allegedly, he was not happy with the final film version and asked for his name to be removed from the credits.

Maximilian Schell gives a very strong performance as the proprietor of a financial empire, which he rules from his apartment in Manhattan. However, it appears that he is a war criminal in hiding. After his arrest, an accusation that he was Adolf Dorff rather than Arthur Goldman, having taken on the name of a victim of the concentration camp, he is judged and, for safety’s sake, kept in a glass booth. (The plot has echoes of the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann.

The film has a character actor cast including Luther Adler (who had portrayed Hitler in the past) as the presiding judge.

The film was directed by veteran Arthur Hiller, best known for Love Story and for comedies like Silver Streak.

This is a very intellectual film as well as emotional, reminding audiences of the reality of the Holocaust, of the Jewish victims of the concentration camps, of the ruthlessness of the Nazi officials.

1. How successful a transferral to the screen of a stage play? The limitations of its scenes, especially in the second part, in the court?

2. The strength of the dialogue from the play, the quality of the speeches and their transferring to the screen, especially the confrontations of Goldman in the court case? Where did the strengths of the play lie? What were the strengths of the film?

3. How much did the film depend on audience response to the Jews, their fate during the way, Nazis and their cruelty? the of the concentration camps, modern Israel and its rights for war criminals?

4. Audience response to Arthur Goldman? The possibility of identifying with him? Or observing him? How mad did he seem in the first part, the puzzle of his way of life, the puzzle of his arrest? the ironies of his trial? Sympathy and antipathy? The impact of the truth about his identity? And the need for the reconsideration for all that we had seen him do and say?

5. How mad a person was Goldman? His playing with his own identity and that of Dorf? His feelings Of guilt of having survived the concentration camp when so many died? His taking on guilt freely? willing his suffering, and yet being a victim? The Christian religious overtones of his speech? Signs of the cross, Latin prayers, the illusion to the pope and the forgiveness of the Jews by the Council? The Christ figure solution in understanding him? Christ as a Jew who took on the sufferings of the world? Was considered mad? The Christ-figure aspects for an anti-violent solution to the problems and hostilities of the modern world?

6. The initial picture of Goldman trying hard to be an American, his language, his emphases, his erratic behaviour, talk? The gist of his talk about America and himself? His pre-War experience? His dependence upon Charlie and his use of him? Of the doctor?

7. The hidden life of Goldman? His fears, burns, his wife's memorial, the pope's forgiveness, the money? All to be reinterpreted in the later light of the truth?

8. The impact of the car following him, his arrangements about x-rays, the drama of the arrest, the indignity of the search? His immediate acting polite to the Nazi, bring suffering on himself, his defiance, and his mad mouthing of the extremist statements and attitudes?

9. Goldman's experience in the prison in Israel? The indignity and his calling world attention to himself? His confrontation with Mrs Rosen? (In the later light oft her outburst about Israel's aggressiveness and the need for attacking first in the modern world?), his attitudes towards Mrs Rossen, his vulgarity in her regard, his showing off and exhibitionism? His deal about his illegal entry, his wearing the Nazi uniform? His assertiveness? All to reinterpreted in the light of the ending?

10. The significance of the visitor, the doctor, the discussion about individual psychosis, the psychosis of a nation,# what was normal, and mass guilt when a nation is in error?

11. The significance of the glass booth? Dorf and his uniform, the court and the people there, the judges and their presuppositions, the chief judge and his hearing of the case, the audience and their weeping during the trial, their aggression against the Nazi atrocities?

12. Mrs Rossen and her initial speech for emotion, the world press, the legality of the trial, the appeal to the moral law? The legality of the abduction and the arrest? Dorf's reactions to these? how much truth was spoken in his acts? The calling of the witnesses and their stories? The accumulated detail of these atrocities and its impact on audiences? The value of remembering these years later? The witnesses and their identifying of Dorf?

13. The significance in detail of Dorf's reactions to the witnesses? His callous attitudes, his applause? The dramatic significance of the main outburst speech, with his imitations of Hitler, the Nazi music and singing, the expression by an individual of the German pride in Nazism, the admiration and love for Hitler? The ambiguities of his speech about love and hate? How well could an audience understand fanaticism, and the response to Hitler via this speech? The technique that he used to communicate this understanding?

14. The surprise of the interviews with the doctors, the truth about their substituting the x-rays for money, fulfilling Goldman's punishment?

15. The impact of the truth? Mrs Rossen being taken aback, the sympathy of the judge? The audience reaction? The fact that Derf was not Dorf, but Goldman? The question of guilt and identification for guilt and punishment? The significance of his imagined death? The Christ figure, stance that Goldman took? The message of the suffering and non violence for a violent world?

16. The significance of remembering these 20th century themes for the present day?