The Juggler

KIRK DOUGLAS struggles to forget the horrors of a concentration camp in THE JUGGLER, another one of Stanley Kramer's serious socially conscious films of the '50s. Unfortunately, the end result is a film that doesn't really connect with its target audience despite a solid performance by Douglas as the troubled Jew from Israel unable to overcome his fear and bitterness.

Unfortunately, Kramer had a habit of assigning George Antheil to score his films. Antheil contributes another inappropriate score heavily accenting any melodramatic moment that points up Kirk's anguish, much the way he did in Kramer's NOT AS A STRANGER. It didn't work there and it doesn't work here, especially during the "escape" scene where the music reaches a frenzied fever pitch of discordant notes.

It's hard to fully sympathize with Douglas' tormented character and that is the film's chief handicap. As the man tracking down the fugitive, PAUL STEWART does his usual workmanlike job. Trouble is, there's an almost documentary feel to the story and its pivotal character is never fully fleshed out, remaining somewhat of an enigma despite Douglas' good performance. When romance comes into the story with the entrance of MILLY VITALE, Douglas' character softens a little under her compassionate care.

Some vivid glimpses of Israel, circa 1949, and good location photography gives the story an authentic air, but the story values are never more than ordinary and the total effect is bland.

Worthwhile mainly for Kirk Douglas fans, it fails to make the impact intended as a serious study of a man haunted by prison camp memories.

One of Kirk Douglas' more intense performances,it is a pity that this movie should remain a buried treasure.

"Surviving the horror" could be another title for "the juggler" .A Jew ,who has lost all his family and who has known the concentration camps comes back to the promised land in 1949.Life during WW2 camps has often been described,but life AFTER the nightmare is a subject which has rarely been told in movies with a few exceptions ("die Morder sind unter uns ":Susanne's character and "Exodus": the young man played by Sal Mineo).But never as successfully as here.

Hans cannot forget.His psyche is shot."I'm the juggler and the juggled" . He tries to find back his dear departed although he knows they were killed.He suffers from claustrophobia and Douglas makes us FEEL his disease (the film owes a great deal to this extraordinary actor),and every time he sees men in uniform ,he thinks of his torturers.

Admirable sequences: Douglas in the desert town ,with all these walls which imprison him ,and those men around who are threats .The minefield where the distraught man and his young pal are rescued by their fellow men who form a human chain.

In his absorbing memoirs,Douglas wrote that he once helped Dmytryk who was one of the Unfriendly Tens .But when they made "the juggler" ,the director acted as if they had never met.Douglas thought he was ashamed for having been an informer.But he did not judge him at all.What would I have done if I had been in his shoes ? he wrote.

Many films might suggest that Dmytryk was suffering from of a strong guilty feeling: "the sniper" with his burned arm,José Ferrer's arm in a sling in "Caine Mutiny" .And in this film ,Douglas "gagging" his arm-mouth ,or covering it to hide his tattooed number.

I agree with all the precedent users.A film which must be restored to favor.

The Juggler is the story of a concentration camp survivor in 1949 trying to make a place for himself in the new state of Israel. As the hopes and dreams of so many Jews over many generations are realized, a country where they're not the guests or the barely tolerated minority, Kirk Douglas as Hans Muller can't leave the memory of what he's survived behind in Europe.

Back in the day Douglas was a music hall entertainer, a juggler by trade, and from what I could see Douglas mastered the art himself to make his performance quite believable. As an actor I have never seen anyone better than Kirk Douglas to go from 0 to 120 in emotions in a matter of seconds. Kirk needed that ability to play the psychologically tattered Hans Muller.

A lot of folks who survived questioned the very nature of nature's God to have allowed such a thing to happen. Even more so they questioned the randomness of those who did survive. Douglas lost his wife and children there.

When he wanders away from the settlement camp in Haifa and is questioned by an Israeli policeman, the demons from Europe return and Douglas strikes at the cop. Thinking he's killed him Kirk goes on the run and he teams up with another camp survivor, an orphan played by Joey Walsh.

Their wanderings and eventually settling down in a kibbutz is most of the film. The Juggler was the first American production to be shot in Israel and we see Douglas and Walsh in the real Haifa, the real Nazareth and in the countryside of Israel which had seen its own war for survival at birth the year before.

The Juggler however does stick to the story and it doesn't just become an Israel travelogue. And it's a nice story about a good man who's seen the worst of what his fellow human beings can do just trying to find a place in a promising, but strange new world.

As the child of a holocaust survivor who joined the Israeli army in 1947, I grew up watching this movie with my father. It had not been on for many years but I got to see it again a few years ago. It is a good movie, I believe filmed on location in Israel. The theme is more about Hans (Kirk Douglas) and his adjustment to a new life while carrying the burden of being in the camps. At the beginning he tries to hide his identity by covering his arm to hide his tattoo. All I can say is watch it, it is worth it.

Following World War II, the life of the Jewish nation is uncertain. The United Nations is contemplating taking a vote on creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine . Until then , many Jews are exiled from much of Europe - especially Germany - in hopes of beginning and making a new fruitful life ; however , many of them are sent to detention camps . Set in 1949 , previous years 1946 ,1947 and early 1948 were a years in which Zionist terrorist was at its height and Independent Israel still seemed heartbreaks away . Finally , the state of Israel is created in 1948 , resulting in war with its Arab neighbors . Meanwhile , some immigrants have no where to go , there arrives a former concentration camp inmate and Berlin native named Hans Muller (Kirk Douglas) . After fighting a policeman , Hans turns a fugitive , traveling through Israel with an orphan teenage boy , whom he teaches to juggle while searching for peace of mind ; meantime , being relentless pursued by a police inspector (Paul Stewart) . Regarding his risked odyssey post-war, as he is back to Israel and escapes across the countryside . Subsequently , Hans stays at a kibutz where meets Ya'El (Milly Vitale) , she is initially naive about his sedution and hostile toward Muller's means of achieving his goals . However, she ultimately falls in love with him and with his dream despite their cultural differences and the mental breakdown suffering from his experiences in the Nazi death camps. The drama and the passion of one of the epic events of the twentieth century !

This historic film concerning a deranged Jewish vaudevillian-juggler who immigrates to Israel where and he can't adjust to peacetime life . It is a worthy exercice but results to be slow-moving and boring , at times . Being well produced by the great Stanley Kramer , appropriately photographed in black and white by Roy Hunt , containing a sensitive and moving musical score by George Antheil and professionally directed by Edward Dmytryck , though it has some flaws and gaps . It is a nice and thought-provoking film, but not excellent , about a unsettling man who is a neurotic about authority and confinement , that's why he can not overcome the psychological effects of the war , concerning a thunderous traveling , as well as his slow rediscovery of hope and life . It has the usual trappings of a grand historical fresco about building of Israel state , but it results to be more an introspective drama than an epic movie . To be sure the movie is enjoyable and strong , regarding the plight of the survivors from Auschwitz and other concentration camps . A sensitive and brooding picture dealing with doubts facing the liberated prisoners and psychological dilemmas . Good performances from Kirk Douglas as an obstinate and quick to anger Jew , who due to psychological problems has not to enjoy an easy life . Here a compelling Kirk gives a very fine acting , delivering one of the best interpretations of his long career, as the ex-prisoner attempting to reclaim his humanity later experiencing unimaginable terror and distress . Douglas is assisted by a good cast , such as : the gorgeous Milly Vitale , Paul Stewart , Joey Walsh , Alf Kjellin , Beverly Washburn , Richard Benedict , jay Adler , Charles Lane, among others .

The picture well written by Michael Blankfort was efficiently directed by Edward Dmytriyck providing an introspective look about Nazism consequences with harrowing scenes , though including some brief failures . A veteran filmmaker, Dmytryck is one of Hollywood's most prolific directors who started his career in the early 40s . He was a craftsman whose career was interrupted by the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a congressional committee that employed ruthless tactics aimed at rooting out and destroying what it saw as Communist influence in Hollywood . A lifelong political leftist who had been a Communist Party member briefly during World War II, Dmytryk was one of the so-called "Hollywood Ten" who refused to cooperate with HUAC and had their careers disrupted or ruined as a result. The committee threw him in prison for refusing to cooperate, and after having spent several months behind bars , Dmytryk decided to cooperate . Dmytrick's biggest film was ¨The Caine Mutiny¨ , but he also realized another mutiny film titled : ¨Mutiny¨ with Angela Lansbury . Edward was an expert on warlike genre as ¨Back to Batan¨ , ¨Battle of Anzio¨ , ¨Young lions¨ and Western as ¨Broken lance¨ , ¨Alvarez Kelly¨ , ¨Warlock¨ , among others . Rating : 7 , better than average .