The Man in the Glass Booth

A film that begins in New York. Arthur Goldman is a rich businessman. He lives at the top of a tower. He is Jewish. He came out of a concentration camp alive. His behaviour is strange. He talks constantly, jokes, provokes people, and gives nobody a serious answer. There are cameras in his flat. He controls the doors and behaves as though he is always watched. One day agents come. They take him to Israel. The claim is this: Goldman is not Jewish at all. He is a Nazi officer who changed his identity. From there the film becomes a trial. The accused sits in a glass booth. It was built for security and he speaks from inside it. Witnesses come. Survivors of the camp testify. Goldman does not object. On the contrary he takes the accusation up and enlarges it. He stands in the booth and makes speeches. He defends his belief, his pride and what he did. The court is appalled. Then a fact emerges. What the narrative is interested in is not identity but complicity: its real question is what a victim does with his own victimhood, and whether a court can answer that. The structure comes from a stage play. The text is by Robert Shaw, who was also an actor. Shaw was not satisfied with the result and asked for his name to be taken off the film. The production is part of a series of filmed plays. Plays were being brought to cinema under the name of the American Film Theatre and this is one of them. The narrative takes place almost entirely in two settings: a flat and a courtroom. Maximilian Schell was nominated for the best actor Oscar. The playing is deliberately excessive; the character is always performing and who he is at any moment stays unsettled. Arthur Hiller directed. Maximilian Schell, Lois Nettleton, Luther Adler and Lawrence Pressman are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes stage adaptations and morally difficult films. Who it is not for: anyone looking for quiet telling; the performance is pitched high throughout and the film gives the viewer no relief anywhere.