''Judith'' is a 1966

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

made by Command Productions, Cumulus Productions and

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. It was directed by Daniel Mann and produced by Kurt Unger from a screenplay by

John Michael Hayes John Michael Hayes (11 May 1919 – 19 November 2008) was an American screenwriter, who scripted four of Alfred Hitchcock's films in the 1950s. Early life Hayes was born in Worcester, Massachusetts to John Michael Hayes Sr. and Ellen Mabel Hayes. ...

, based on the story by Lawrence Durrell. The music score was by

Sol Kaplan Sol Kaplan (April 19, 1919 – November 14, 1990) was an American film and television music composer. Life and career Kaplan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He worked as a successful concert pianist, including performing at Carnegie Hall ...

and the cinematography by John Wilcox. The film stars

Sophia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...

Peter Finch Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch (28 September 191614 January 1977) was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio. Born in London, he emigrated to Australia as a teenager and was raised in Sydney, where he worked in vaudeville ...

and Jack Hawkins.

Plot

In Palestine shortly before the end of the British mandate, the

Haganah Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the I ...

has learned that a former German

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful ...

commander, General Gustav Schiller, is teaching the Arabs battle tactics, but they are unable to locate him. Then they learn of the existence of his

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

former wife, Judith Auerbach Schiller, and arrange for her to be smuggled into Palestine via the port of

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

. She is placed in the care of Aaron Stein, a Haganah commander, at a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

. Schiller had abandoned his wife during the war and took away their son. Judith was then sent to the

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

, where she was forced to serve in an officers'

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub p ...

, but survived. Judith dislikes the rigours of kibbutz life, and is unable to tell the kibbutz leaders anything about Schiller, but Stein hopes that she can at least identify him. He "suggests" that she ask the local army commander, Major Lawton, to help her. Judith travels to Haifa to see him and pleads with him to hand over the file on Schiller, which he eventually does. It turns out that Schiller was last known to be in

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. Judith, Stein and a colleague are smuggled into Damascus, and after days of searching, they find Schiller. As they are about to capture him, Judith shoots and wounds him. Schiller is smuggled back to Palestine and interrogated, but he refuses to give any information. Left alone with Judith, he pleads for mercy. But as the kibbutz comes under attack by Arab forces, he finally reveals the battle plans, and also tells Judith that he knows the whereabouts of their son, Karl. The room in which he is being kept is bombed and Schiller is killed. Aaron promises that he will help Judith find her son.

Cast

as Judith Auerbach *

as Aaron Stein * Jack Hawkins as Major Lawton *

Hans Verner Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi a ...

as Gustav Schiller * Frank Wolff as Eli *

Shraga Friedman Shraga (Talmudic Aramaic: ) is a Jewish given name (meaning "candle" in Talmudic Aramaic) and may refer to: * Samuel ben Uri Shraga Phoebus, Polish rabbi and Talmudist of Woydyslaw in the second half of the 17th century *Shraga Bar (born 1948), for ...

as Nathan * André Morell as Haim *

Zaharira Harifai Zaharira Harifai ( he, זהרירה חריפאי; December 12, 1929 – January 2, 2013) was an Israeli film, stage, and television actress and recipient of the Israel Prize in Theater, which she was awarded in 2003. ''The Jerusalem Post'' called ...

as Dr. Rachel * Arnoldo Foà as Interrogator * Joseph Gross as Yanek *

Roger Beaumont Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ...

as Ze'ev * Zipora Peled as Hannah *

Peter Burton Peter Ray Burton (4 April 1921 – 21 November 1989) was an English film and television actor. Early life Peter Ray Burton, was born in Bromley, Kent, to Frederick Ray Burton and Gladys Maude (née Frazer). Career He is perhaps best known fo ...

as Conklin * Terence Alexander as Carstairs * Daniel Ocko as Arab Guide

Release

The film premiered on January 20, 1966 at

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and theater at 1260 Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplace of the Nation", it is the headquarters for ...

Reception

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' film critic Bosley Crowther, wrote that the film "... comes out as a disappointing picture, more lurid and loud than lustrous," and that the film is more fiction than an illusion. However, he praised Loren's acting: "She is lending her name and her presence to a routine cloak-and-dagger film that, without her, would get no more attention—and would deserve no more—than a quickie on the lower half of a double bill." The film has a 20% "fresh" rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on five reviews.

References

External links

* * * *
Judith
on Letterboxd
Judith (movie)
on the Digital collections of Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa {{Daniel Mann 1966 films 1966 drama films British drama films Films directed by Daniel Mann Films about the Arab–Israeli conflict Israeli–Palestinian conflict films Films set in Mandatory Palestine Films set in 1947 Films set in 1948 Films with screenplays by John Michael Hayes Films scored by Sol Kaplan 1960s English-language films 1960s British films