Tattle Tales

THE 16TH AND MOST IMPORTANT PRODUCTION: That would have to be the stirring "Judgment At Nuremberg," written by Abby Mann and directed by John Tillinger, which just opened to critical plaudits at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre. Set in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1948, the seat of the rabid anti-Semitism indigenous to Nazi German’s Third Reich, the play is based on the war crimes trials of the Nazi jurists who executed the orders of Hitler, Goebbels, and Goering along with their political agenda. The trial had far-reaching effects, as it negated the defense contention that the jurists were innocent because they were only following the orders of their superiors.

An impressive cast of 21 is headed by Maximilian Schell as the leading defendant, former German jurist Ernst Janning, and George Grizzard, playing the American judge on the war crimes panel. Then there’s Michael Hayden in the role that made Schell a star 40 years ago and won him an Academy Award for his performance in the movie. Previously, the play had been a television success on "Playhouse 90." The current live production is further enhanced by Robert Foxworth as the American prosecutor, Colonel Parker, (played by Richard Widmark on the screen), and the distinguished actors Joseph Wiseman and Michael Mastro as prosecution witnesses.

Finally, we have an attractive young blonde actress named Heather Randall in the Maria Wallner role played originally by Judy Garland. The Wallner character is forced to bear witness to her role in the shocking Jew-hating Feldenstein Trial. Mrs. Randall (yes, she’s the wife of producer Tony and mother of his two children) gives a performance that won’t make you forget Judy Garland, but will cause you to remember her as a star of tomorrow.

Mann’s play is not based on the 1945 and ‘46 trials, which found the top Nazis guilty of crimes against humanity, but rather on the collusion of the jurists who allowed the laws of Germany to be perverted by the government. Mann, clever writer that he is, has in the stage adaptation of his screenplay, written short explanatory downstage scenes into the framework of this courtroom drama that distinguishes it from the format of the classic "Caine Mutiny Court Martial." In these story-advancing sequences, Schell is noteworthy for his slumped body language epitomizing defeat and guilt. Schell’s attitude is in sharp contrast to the other defendants, who sit proud, erect and defiant. Without the courtroom scenes, there would, of course, be no play.

A SWEEPING WORLD WAR II EPIC: It’s no "Saving Private Ryan," but "Enemy At the Gates," which I saw at my favorite multi-plex, the College Point 12-screen in Whitestone, is still loaded with exciting segments that make for consistent entertainment. Based on a real duel between a Russian sniper (Jude Law) and his german counterpart (Ed Harris) during the Battle of Stalingrad, the turning point in the Nazi–Russian conflict, the film keeps you on the edge of your seat for most of its 131 minutes. The lengthy scenes between the two snipers are untrammeled by dialogue. Outstanding are Joseph Fiennes as a Soviet propagandist and Rachel Weisz as a female sharpshooter. A four star movie all the way, it could go down in cinematic history as the "All Quiet On The Western Front" of World War II.