''The Man in the Glass Booth'' is a 1975 American drama film directed by

Arthur Hiller Arthur Hiller, (November 22, 1923 – August 17, 2016) was a Canadian-American television and film director with over 33 films to his credit during a 50-year career. He began his career directing television in Canada and later in the U.S. By t ...

. The film was produced and released as part of the

American Film Theatre From 1973 to 1975, using approximately 500 movie theaters across the US, The American Film Theatre presented two seasons of film adaptations of well-known plays. Each film was shown only four times at each theatre. By design, these were not films ...

, which adapted theatrical works for a subscription cinema series. The screenplay was adapted from Robert Shaw's 1967 novel and 1968 stage play, both of the same name. The novel was the second in a trilogy of novels, preceded by '' The Flag'' (1965), and followed by ''

A Card from Morocco ''A Card from Morocco'' is a novel written by author and actor Robert Shaw (actor), Robert Shaw. It was published in 1969. ''A Card from Morocco'' was the final novel in a trilogy, having been preceded by ''The Flag (novel), The Flag'' (1965) and ...

'' (1969). The plot was inspired by the kidnapping and trial of the German

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

SS-''

Obersturmbannführer __NOTOC__ ''Obersturmbannführer'' (Senior Assault-unit Leader; ; short: ''Ostubaf'') was a paramilitary rank in the German Nazi Party (NSDAP) which was used by the SA ('' Sturmabteilung'') and the SS (''Schutzstaffel''). The rank of ''Oberstu ...

'' (

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colon ...

)

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
'' Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

Plot

Arthur Goldman is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and a

death camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

survivor. Now a rich industrialist, he lives in luxury in a

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

high-rise. He banters with his assistant Charlie, often shocking him with his outrageousness and irreverence about aspects of Jewish life. One day, Israeli

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

agents kidnap Goldman and take him to Israel for trial on charges of being a Nazi war criminal. Goldman's trial forces his accusers to face not only his presumed guilt, but theirs as well. At the end, it appears that Goldman is not a Nazi or a war criminal after all; he falsified the dental records which the Israelis used to identify him to bring about the trial. When the deception is revealed by the Israeli prosecutor, Goldman is left standing in the trial court's bulletproof glass box, a broken man. The stress shatters his mental health and he becomes

catatonic Catatonia is a complex neuropsychiatric behavioral syndrome that is characterized by abnormal movements, immobility, abnormal behaviors, and withdrawal. The onset of catatonia can be acute or subtle and symptoms can wax, wane, or change during ...

. He then relives in his mind a Nazi

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are ...

execution and dies as those in the courtroom whisper the Jewish prayer, "Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad" ''("Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD is one").''

Cast

Development

While ''The Man in the Glass Booth'' was being developed for the screen, Shaw disapproved of the screenplay and had his name removed from the credits. Shaw viewed the completed film before its release and asked to have his name reinstated. In 2002, director

related Shaw's objection to the screenplay and his change of heart,

When we decided that we needed more emotions in the film and leaned it towards that, we tried, obviously, to be honest to Robert Shaw, to keep that intellectual game-playing, but to create more of an emotional environment. And Robert Shaw became very disturbed. He did not like the idea and indeed, if you will watch the film, you will see that his name does not appear in the credits, nor does it even say, "based on the play, ''The Man in the Glass Booth''" because he wouldn't let us do it. He just didn't like the idea until he saw the film. Then he phoned Eddie Anhalt, the screenwriter, and congratulated him because he thought it was—just kept the tone he wanted and did it so well. And he phoned
Mort Abrahams Mort Abrahams (26 March 1916 – 28 May 2009) was an American film and television producer. Among his credits are nine episodes of spy series '' The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' and, as associate producer, the films '' Doctor Dolittle'', ''Planet of th ...
the Executive Producer to see if he could get his name put on the final credits. But it was too late to restore his name, all the prints were all made.

Production

The film was shot for $1 million, with 10 days of rehearsals and 23 days of filming in the summer of 1974. The exteriors of Goldman's penthouse were filmed atop the Crown Building in New York City, where the roof of the building was dressed to look like a balcony and garden. Interiors were filmed at the 20th Century Fox Studios in

Century City Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles, Century City is one of ...

, California.

Awards and honors

Maximilian Schell was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Actor The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The ...

and the

Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama The Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama is a Golden Globe Award that was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1951. Previously, there was a single award for "Best Actor i ...

for his performance.

Edward Anhalt Edward Anhalt (March 28, 1914 – September 3, 2000) was an American screenwriter, producer, and documentary filmmaker. After working as a journalist and documentary filmmaker for Pathé and CBS-TV, he teamed with his wife Edna Anhalt, one of ...

was nominated for the

Writers Guild of America Award The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility ...

for Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium for his screenplay.

Reception

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

wrote "Arthur Hiller's film for the AFT is a very good one, although it suffers from one basic problem. By its very nature, film tends to be a realistic medium, photographing the outsides of real world. Robert Shaw's play, even as adapted and made somewhat more realistic by Edward Anhalt, is nevertheless a symbolic and mannered one".

Raymond Benson Raymond Benson (born September 6, 1955) is an American author best known for being the author of the James Bond novels from 1997 to 2003. Benson was born in Midland, Texas and graduated from Permian High School in Odessa in 1973. In primary sc ...

wrote in 2009, "The film is a riveting, first-rate drama featuring an Oscar-nominated, tour-de-force performance by Schell".

Home video

The film was released as a region 1 DVD in 2003 and again in 2008. A Blu-ray version was released in the US in 2017.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Man In The Glass Booth, The 1975 drama films 1975 films American drama films Films based on British novels American films based on plays Films about the aftermath of the Holocaust World War II war crimes trials films Films directed by Arthur Hiller Films produced by Ely Landau Films set in Israel Films set in Manhattan Films based on adaptations Films with screenplays by Edward Anhalt 1970s English-language films 1970s American films