The Man in the Glass Booth
by Arthur Hiller
List Price:
Our Price: $16.43
You Save: $13.48 (45%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $16.39 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Lawrence Pressman, Lloyd Bochner, Lois Nettleton, Luther Adler, Maximilian SchellDirector: Arthur Hiller
Brand: Kino International
Cinematographer: Sam Leavitt
Editor: David Bretherton
Producer: Ely A. Landau
Producer: Mort Abrahams
Writer: Edward Anhalt
Writer: Robert Shaw
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 2872
Studio: Kino Video
Product features:
- MAN IN THE GLASS BOOTH, THE (DVD MOVIE)
DVD Reviews of The Man in the Glass Booth
DVD Review: The film version is always overrated
Summary: 1 Stars
Robert Shaw's "The Man in the Glass Booth" was a successful play when it came out in 1967 and ran in London and on Broadway. Harold Pinter, who directed for the first time of his career a stage play, was a friend of Shaw and helped him to transform the novel into two acts of controversial content in which the rich Jew Arthur Goldman is supposed to be the former SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Adolf Karl Dorff. He is finally arrested by Israelis lead by a woman named Rosy Rosen. But the trial in Jerusalem (parallels to Eichmann)is ending in a way no one would have ever expected...
Donald Pleasence played Goldman in the original stage production in 1967/68 and his performance was regarded as one of the finest in his whole career. Pinter's direction did also receive excellent reviews while Shaw's play remained ambivalent. It is still controversial to this day, without question, but it is also written brilliantly. Although it is very tough it is not anti-semitic as some critics called it. Pinter is Jewish (and not known as being anti-semitic) and Shaw was a left-wing man who also wasn't anti-semitic (if I believe the two biographers of his, Jon French and Karen Carmean).
It's a shame that the play isn't published anymore, for me it is a timeless classic. It is very rarely played now. In Germany for example, the play was never published but it was staged there in 2004 (nearly 40 years after its original release!) and was very well, although controversially, reviewed.
However, when it comes to a movie version you can't transform the book 1:1 into film. Some adaptations come close ("Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"), some are very different but are unique themselves ("Naked Lunch") and some can also be quite disastrous- like this one. Producers unwisely chose the director of "Love Story", Arthur Hiller, for their way of "The Man in the Glass Booth". In an interview on the DVD he says that the play was an 'intellectual game-play'- that's right, it was. He also says (more than one time) that HE wanted to make the film 'more emotional'- that's, please read the play, a very big mistake. This is not "Love Story"!! Of course, there are a lot of emotions at the end of the second act which I agree should be felt by the audience as well. But the direction of Hiller is so boring and non-dramatical that I had to ask myself where the emotions were. When I finally saw something like them, they were misplaced, full of not welcomed pathos or even unwillingly funny. This is mainly the fault of Mr. Schell. He is not a bad actor. But he was definitely the wrong choice for "Glass Booth". Or at least, with this director. I can only imagine how Hiller shouted at him "Yes yes, Maxi- more emotional!" And what came out was a performance which might have worked on stage but in the film it is simply overacting. Of course, Goldman/Dorff is a strangely extrovert and sometimes cynically funny man but he is not grimacing in the silliest way all the time. Just remember Donald Pleasence. Think of his performance in "The Caretaker" (directed by Clive Donner) and you will surely agree that he would have been the better choice for the part. Schell is in my point of view as 'good' as in Carpenter's "Vampires". The actress of Rosy Rosen is also badly miscast (in the play she is a very tough, revengeful person but in the film she is only soft-spoken with tears in her eyes). Lawrence Pressman as Charly (who was in the stage production as well) and Luther Adler as The Judge on the contrary, are fine.
As Hiller and Schell are maybe a question of taste, the script is not at all.
I can't tell in this reduced space how many important and ambivalent moments they cut out from Shaw's masterpiece. I think producers were a bit afraid of the content and made every aspect far too obvious so they couldn't hurt anyone. But this work does hurt and it should make people think and not stop them. Somehow, Mr. Shaw was of the same opinion. His name does (understandably) not appear on the credits of the film. Now that he's dead, they could press it on the DVD-cover. But it's not "Robert Shaw's Man in the Glass Booth" as they have written it. It is "Arthur Hiller's/Edward Anhalt's/Maximilian Schell's version" of it!
I think the author will turn in his grave. I can only ask myself why nobody asked Shaw himself to write a script. Shaw was a very talented man. He was a gifted writer and actor. He wrote e.g. the screenplay for Losey's "Figures in a Landscape" in which he also starred and is supposed to have written the 'Indianapolis Speech' which he gives in "Jaws". Shaw was very unhappy with the script and wisely chose to remove his name from this film. Hiller, however, claims that Shaw had seen the finished film- loved it and called the producer to put his name back on the credits. I don't believe him. Shaw's biographers tell that he never saw the film because he hated the script so much. After the film version of "Glass Booth", Shaw also worked with Maximilian Schell on "Der Richter und sein Henker" ("End of the Game"/ "Deception") which Schell directed. They had an argument on the script of the film version of "Glass Booth" which Schell defended (of course: he got an Academy Award nomination for over-acting). Shaw later said about Schell: "My least favourite director."
I rate this film 2/5 for its original REALLY COMPELLING material.
Description of The Man in the Glass Booth
MAN IN THE GLASS BOOTH - DVD MovieBestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The TrainTwentieth Century Fox; Release date: 1999-02-23; DVD
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Broken SilenceUniversal Studios; Release date: 2004-03-09; DVD
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
The Search for MengeleFirst RUN Features; Release date: 2008-09-16; DVD
Best price: $13.13
Price in other shops:
Nazi Hunters: The Real StoryDigital1stop; Release date: 2010-01-19; DVD
Best price: $3.26
Price in other shops:
Wallenberg: A Hero's StoryPAR; Release date: 2011-04-05; DVD
Best price: $10.61
Price in other shops:
Miracle at MidnightBuena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2004-03-02; DVD
Best price: $6.09
Price in other shops:
ConspiracyHBO Home Video; Release date: 2002-03-26; DVD
Best price: $4.19
Price in other shops:
The PawnbrokerLions Gate; Release date: 2003-12-16; DVD
Best price: $10.85
Price in other shops:
The Hunt for Adolf EichmannRelease date: 2007-09-11; DVD
Best price: $19.95
Price in other shops:
EichmannE1E; Release date: 2011-01-18; DVD
Best price: $11.86
Price in other shops: