Thomas Babington "Babe" Levy (Dustin Hoffman) is a student at Columbia in New York City. Babe is also in training to be a marathon runner. His brother is Henry “Doc” Levy (Roy Scheider). Babe believes that Doc works for an oil company, however, he is really working for a shadowy government agency that operates between the FBI and the CIA. Babe’s and Doc’s father (Allen Joseph) committed suicide during the McCarthy era after being accused of being a Communist sympathizer. Babe believes that his father was innocent.
At school Babe meets a pretty young woman, Elsa Opel (Marthe Keller). Elsa says she is from Switzerland and that she is here on a student visa. They begin dating and have a romantic relationship. When Doc meets Elsa, he figures out that she is really German and not Swiss. He accuses her of shopping for a green card but suspects that she is keeping an eye on Babe for different reasons.
Klaus Szell (Ben Dova) is the brother of Nazi war criminal Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier). Dr. Szell was a dentist during WWII who experimented on war prisoners. Nicknamed the White Angel, Szell amassed a large number of diamonds by selling freedom to wealthy Jews and extracting gold from the teeth of those that were not as rich or as lucky. The gold was then traded for more diamonds. The diamonds were smuggled into the U.S. and Klaus would occasionally sell a diamond or two and send the proceeds to his brother in Uruguay for his expenses. When Klaus dies in a car accident, Szell is cut off from his money and must come up with a new plan.
Szell arrives in New York City to straighten things out. He contacts Doc who turns out to be a double agent. Szell and Doc get into an argument and Szell stabs Doc. Doc makes his way to Babe’s apartment where he dies. Szell thinks that Doc may have confided in Babe something important before he died. He has his two goons: Karl (Richard Bright) and Erhard (Marc Lawrence), kidnap Babe. Babe finds himself in the middle of a double cross and in the dental chair of a Nazi maniac asking the question “Is it safe”?
“Marathon Man” was released in 1976 and was directed by John Schlesinger. It is an American suspense thriller. The film was based on the 1974 novel by William Goldman.
This was an intense and exciting film. The sound of the drill was worse than the screaming. Some scenes were so intense that they were edited out after review audiences complained. There are some flaws in the film, but most of it is geared toward tension and excitement so any misstep is overlooked by the sheer intensity of the film as a whole.
Sir Laurence Olivier, who played Dr. Szell, was battling cancer during shooting and was undergoing aggressive cancer treatments. Olivier had trouble remembering lines due to the chemo. In the end his cancer went into remission and Olivier earned an Oscar nomination for his performance. He also won a golden globe award for Best Supporting Actor in the same movie.
Flashbacks of marathon runner Abebe Bikila are inserted throughout the film. Bikila was an Ethiopian runner who in 1960 won his first Olympic Marathon in Rome. He again won the 1964 marathon in Tokyo. He ran barefoot.
Actor and stuntman Ben Dova, who played Klaus Szell, was actually born Joseph Anthony Spah. Born in Germany he emigrated to the U.S. in 1922. He was a contortionist and acrobat who worked in vaudeville. He was on board the ill-fated Hindenburg when is caught on fire and crashed in a field in New Jersey.