QB VII

This was a fascinating mini-series based on the Leon Uris novel of the same name, and it helped to launch the mini-series genre. It is VERY fortunate that the producers were able to get such gifted stars as Ben Gazzara and Anthony Hopkins for the leads. Writing, acting, music and exotic locales make this a must-see.

The plot is based on a real-life lawsuit against Uris following the publication of his novel EXODUS. Dr. Adam Kelno is a very well-respected medical doctor who was knighted for his humanitarian work. However, the writer Abe Cady writes a novel that names Kelno, among others, as having committed was crimes while working for the Nazis many years earlier. The central questions of the series are DID Kelno work for the Nazis and IF he did, was he the benevolent man he claims to have been or a monster who was NOT forced to commit atrocities.

The lives of two men, vastly different in their beliefs and in their lifestyles, come head to head in this sprawling mini-series, the first, in fact, of the "television events" that had their heyday in the 1970's and early 1980's. This one was based on a novel by (and real life event in the life of) Leon Uris. Hopkins plays a doctor and former concentration camp prisoner who, while in captivity, was compelled to aid the Nazis in operations related to their horrific human experiments. He is briefly charged with willing compliance in war atrocities, but is found innocent. He then takes his wife (Caron) and baby boy to Kuwait where he works tirelessly to make a difference in the world of the less fortunate. Eventually, he is knighted for his efforts. Meanwhile, Gazzara plays an American Jew who volunteers in the RAF and is gunned down. He courts his nurse (Mills), eventually marrying her, and becomes a celebrated writer. Before long, he is a jaded, wealthy hack who cheats on Mills and lives at odds with his heritage. Eventually, though, he finds that he is compelled to write about the Holocaust and when he does, his reference to Hopkins in the book sparks a libel suit from the now-decorated doctor. The climax of the film is a tense and agonizing court trial at Queen's Bench Seven (hence, the title) as Gazzara tries to prove that Hopkins is guilty while Hopkins strives to keep his name clean. This film set the pace for all mini-series to come (until budgets and tastes changed in the 1990's) and contains many of the characteristics which would mark the format (episodic story arcs, endless star cameos, dubious age make-up, etc...) The story takes a looonnng time to pick up speed with sporadically interesting periods done in by the common (at the time) practice of setting each scene with excruciating shots of buildings, cars pulling up, characters walking to buildings, etc... while Jerry Goldsmith's "Exodus"-flavored score blares and a hopelessly campy narrator butts in. There is, however, some good location work throughout. Fortunately, once the pre-history of the men is finally established, the courtroom scenes make up for the tedium and soapiness of the early sections. Hopkins is wonderful. He invests the character with a wealth of expression and mystery, especially as the case wears on. Gazzara is often wooden, but comes across nicely several times. Caron gets very little to do except fret under layers of age make-up and a grey wig. Mills won an Emmy for her sensitive, appealing work. The film gets a huge shot of class and talent from the excellent Remick (though her role peters out as the film continues) and from the appearances of several renowned British character actors, notably Quayle and Evans. It's a memorable mini-series due to the striking nature of the case, it's place in TV history and the work of Hopkins and a few others. Some of the sequences alluded to and shown are just as unsettling and horrifying in today's "seen-it-all" world as they must have been in 1974, with the tour of the actual camp and the visit to a Holocaust memorial particularly vivid (even if the same cheesy narrator of the mini-series is used, with an accent, to narrate the memorial's documentary!!) Many viewers will be put off by the pace of the scenes in the mid-section, but those who stick with it will find value in the courtroom climax.

One of the earliest of TV mini-series casts Anthony Hopkins and Ben Gazzara who are the plaintiff and defendant in a libel suit. The case is being settled in the courtroom number seven of the Queen's Bench in London, QB VII. What Gazzara is accusing Hopkins of is monstrous indeed, the participation of experiments on Jews in the concentration camp of forced sterilization which involved chemical and physical castration.

Not an easy thing to prove because since World War II, Hopkins, an anti-Communist Polish refugee has been knighted by the Queen for his humanitarian work among the Arab desert tribes. That's probably no accident he chose to settle there with his wife Leslie Caron and son who grows up to be Anthony Andrews. The shifting sands of the Cold War has made such charges tinged with political overtones.

Gazzara is author Leon Uris inserted into the novel and Uris himself doesn't paint a flattering portrait. He's one of Jewish heritage who is not terribly religious. Gazzara married a British girl, Juliet Mills, who was a nurse seeing to his recovery and they have a son who grows up to be Kristoffer Tabori. Gazzara becomes a hack Hollywood screenwriter and gets rich and bored. But he then writes an epic Jewish novel the way Leon Uris wrote Exodus of deeply researched historical fiction and he names Hopkins and what he allegedly did.

This is by no means a strange phenomenon. From the Fifties through the Nineties we heard stories of former Nazis turning up in all kinds of places and in plain sight, not hiding in the deep recesses of Argentina or Paraguay which seemed to be favored by Nazis of higher rank and profile like Dr. Mengele. The President of Austria in the Eighties, Kurt Waldheim had his Nazi past uncomfortably exposed once he was in office. And Ivan Demjanjuk at the ripe old age of 95 after years as an automobile worker in the USA just got sentenced for his war crimes. I doubt we'll be seeing too many more though.

QB VII got a flock of Emmy Awards and nominations including in the Supporting Acting category for Juliet Mills and Anthony Quayle who plays the barrister representing Gazzara. His cross examination scene with Hopkins is devastating. And of course Gazzara and Hopkins are at their usual sterling best.

QB VII marked the farewell performance of Jack Hawkins who had for several years performed without a voice box due to throat cancer which finally claimed him. In QB VII a voice similar to his was used which was not always the case. In a sense this film is his because Hawkins plays the judge presiding over the court in QB VII.

This mini-series holds up very well today and I recommend it highly for viewers who are interested in Holocaust justice and the unfortunate politics that sometimes accompanies it.

QB VII is well worth watching, it is equally good as mini-series entertainment and as a tale of human struggle. It has an epic sweep, great acting, great location shots, and a core story that is extremely compelling. To my taste it was bit too long and drawn-out, but others found the pace to be just right for savoring the deeply humane behaviors on display. Despite winning an Emmy Award (one of six wins and 13 nominations) for sound editing, I found the sound quality to be inconsistent and often flawed, needing playbacks to hear clearly. Overall, that was a small price to pay for this small gem of a production.

One of the first major TV movie events (1974) concerned a case of libel in which a best-selling book "The Holocaust" named a knighted doctor as a concentration camp monster, Dr. Adam Kelno. A Polish Christian doctor who was in a camp as a prisoner (under the scrutiny of Nazi staff) Kelno claimed he was responsible for saving and sparing Jews who might have been butchered or gassed otherwise. But as 25+ years have passed, Kelno has led a modest, unselfish life and now, the author of the book, Abe Cady, needs to find living witnesses who can prove Kelno was no saint. My only beef with this (I didn't read QB VII) is my surprise that Cady, a street-smart writer and his sharp publisher (Dan O'Herlihy) would name a real, living person as an inhuman butcher and then worry about being sued and then, try finding living and written proof. Ben Gazzara as Cady, Anthony Hopkins as Kelno and Leslie Caron as his wife are superb in their roles. The story (running just over 5 hrs), is more of a saga including the lives of Cady and Kelno's family for a quarter century before converging at the titular QB VII (Queen's Bench, Courtroom 7) for a jury trial. While the story periodically dips into the strained family relations of both men, the heart of the story is engrossing, enhanced by on-location filming (including England, Europe and Israel) and a moving score by the late and great Jerry Goldsmith. Robert Stephens and Anthony Quayle are more than convincing as attorneys and Juliet Mills as Cady's wife and Joseph Wiseman as Cady's father both shine. I am not of the Jewish faith, but the film still packs a punch to the heart and is still profoundly moving.