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IMDbPro

The Juggler

  • 19531953
  • PassedPassed
  • 1h 24m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
643
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
66,316
8,136
Kirk Douglas and Milly Vitale in The Juggler (1953)
DramaHistoryWar
In 1949, former concentration camp inmate and Berlin native Hans Muller, immigrates to Israel where, due to psychological problems, he can't adjust to peacetime life.In 1949, former concentration camp inmate and Berlin native Hans Muller, immigrates to Israel where, due to psychological problems, he can't adjust to peacetime life.In 1949, former concentration camp inmate and Berlin native Hans Muller, immigrates to Israel where, due to psychological problems, he can't adjust to peacetime life.
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
643
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
66,316
8,136
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Edward Dmytryk
    • Writer
      • Michael Blankfort(novel)
    • Stars
      • Kirk Douglas
      • Milly Vitale
      • Paul Stewart
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Edward Dmytryk
    • Writer
      • Michael Blankfort(novel)
    • Stars
      • Kirk Douglas
      • Milly Vitale
      • Paul Stewart
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 26User reviews
    • 5Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
    • Awards
      • 1 win

    Photos

    Kirk Douglas in The Juggler (1953)
    Kirk Douglas and Milly Vitale in The Juggler (1953)
    The Juggler (1953)
    Kirk Douglas and Milly Vitale in The Juggler (1953)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Kirk Douglas
    Kirk Douglas
    • Hans Muller
    Milly Vitale
    Milly Vitale
    • Ya'El
    Paul Stewart
    Paul Stewart
    • Detective Karni
    Joseph Walsh
    Joseph Walsh
    • Yehoshua Bresler
    • (as Joey Walsh)
    Alf Kjellin
    Alf Kjellin
    • Daniel
    Beverly Washburn
    Beverly Washburn
    • Susy
    Charles Lane
    Charles Lane
    • Rosenberg
    John Banner
    John Banner
    • Emile Halevy
    Richard Benedict
    Richard Benedict
    • Police Officer Kogan
    Oskar Karlweis
    Oskar Karlweis
    • Willy Schmidt
    Ralph Moody
    Ralph Moody
    • Mukhtar
    • (scenes deleted)
    Marlene Aames
    • Hannah
    • (uncredited)
    Victor Adamson
    Victor Adamson
    • Refugee
    • (uncredited)
    Jay Adler
    Jay Adler
    • Papa Sander - Susy's Father
    • (uncredited)
    Leon Alton
    Leon Alton
    • Bus Driver
    • (uncredited)
    Hanna Axmann-Rezzori
    Hanna Axmann-Rezzori
    • Telephone Girl
    • (uncredited)
    Walter Bacon
    • Audience Member
    • (uncredited)
    John Bleifer
    • Mordecai
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Edward Dmytryk
    • Writer
      • Michael Blankfort(novel) (screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The film is based on author Michael Blankfort's novel with the same title. Initially, producer Stanley Kramer wanted author Michael Blankfort to direct the film but Blankfort was refused a passport for travel to Israel by the United States State Department because Blankfort had been a Communist many years earlier. Kramer reassigned the film to director Edward Dmytryk who served almost a year in prison in 1948 after being convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to divulge his political affiliations. After his release from prison, Dmytryk moved to England but returned to the U.S. and gave testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and, as a result, was removed from the film industry blacklist.
    • Quotes

      Registration Official at Haifa: Name?

      Hans Muller: [softly] Hans Muller

      Registration Official at Haifa: You have to speak louder

      Hans Muller: HANS MULLER's my name

      Registration Official at Haifa: A little softer please. Place of birth?

      Hans Muller: Germany... Munich... Beautiful city

      Registration Official at Haifa: Occupation before the war?

      Hans Muller: You wouldn't believe me

      Registration Official at Haifa: I'll believe anything

      Hans Muller: I was a juggler.

      Registration Official at Haifa: What?

      Hans Muller: A juggler

      [pantomimes juggling balls in the air]

      Registration Official at Haifa: We need a juggler like a hole in the head. What can you do besides throwing things up in the air and catching them?

      Hans Muller: My dear sir, to say I throw things up in the air and catch them is like saying Shakespeare just wrote words. Would you care to see my scrapbook?

      Registration Official at Haifa: No. Show it when you look for a job... if there are any for jugglers

      Hans Muller: I'm retired. I havent thrown up anything but bad food in ten years

      Registration Official at Haifa: So what else can you do?

      Hans Muller: I can wash dishes, sweep barracks, clean toilets. I can also smile while being beaten by fists, feet, straps and long rubber hoses. I can be used as a guinea pig for new drugs and old poisons. All of which we learned as guests of the Nazis.

    • Connections
      Featured in ... A Father... A Son... Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2005)

    User reviews26

    Review
    Top review
    The juggler and the juggled
    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.
    helpful•21
    3
    • dbdumonteil
    • Sep 10, 2006

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 5, 1953 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Zongler
    • Filming locations
      • Haifa, Israel
    • Production company
      • Stanley Kramer Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 24 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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