| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Dustin Hoffman | ... | Babe | |
| Laurence Olivier | ... | Szell | |
| Roy Scheider | ... | Doc | |
| William Devane | ... | Janeway | |
| Marthe Keller | ... | Elsa | |
| Fritz Weaver | ... | Professor Biesenthal | |
| Richard Bright | ... | Karl | |
| Marc Lawrence | ... | Erhard | |
| Allen Joseph | ... | Babe's Father | |
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Tito Goya | ... | Melendez |
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Ben Dova | ... | Szell's Brother |
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Lou Gilbert | ... | Rosenbaum |
| Jacques Marin | ... | LeClerc | |
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James Wing Woo | ... | Chen |
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Nicole Deslauriers | ... | Nicole |
Thomas "Babe" Levy, whose brother Henry James "Doc" Levy is an oil business executive, is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Columbia University. He is also training as a marathon runner. Babe is paying homage to his deceased father, H.B. Levy, in pursuing the same studies as he, the father who committed suicide while being under investigation in the Communist witch hunts. Babe's work does not sit well with Doc who wants Babe to move on with his life. While at Columbia, Babe meets and begins to date Elsa Opel, a foreign exchange student also in History. While out for a walk in Central Park late one night, Babe and Elsa are mugged, the unusual aspect of it being that their attackers were men in suits. Babe will learn that the mugging was not a random attack after someone close to Babe is found murdered, the deceased whom was not whom he purported to be. From here, Babe is thrown into an international conspiracy concerning Nazi war criminal Christian Szell in hiding, and a large cache of ... Written by Huggo
Schlesinger made a great action-suspense film and married it to the artistry of unique talents Hoffman was, by then, a dynamic, young and incredibly versatile film actor with three Academy Award nominations already under his belt for "The Graduate," "Midnight Cowboy," and "Lenny."
But the key to "Marathon Man" was the chemistry between its stars Perhaps one of the most gut-wrenching and most memorable scenes in the film comes when Hoffman is captured and tortured by Olivier who plays the role of a mean and vicious and sadistic Nazi war criminal, Christian Szell Olivier's performance resulted in a 1976 Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor
In 1945, Szell ran the experimental camp at Auschwitz where they called him the White Angel He was a dentist and could provide escape for any Jew who was willing to pay the price He started out with gold, naturally, but very quickly worked his way up to diamonds
As Szell saw the end early, he sneaked his brother into America with the diamonds And they were right here, in New York, in a safe deposit-box until Szell's brother got killed in a head-on collision with an oil truck
Uniquely built, and with a marvelous, rugged face, Roy Scheider, well known for his strong performances in "The French Connection," "Klute," and "Jaws," came on board as Hoffman's mysterious businessman brother, getting the rare chance to play a character that's both hero and villain Doc is a fascinating guy because he chooses to work out his problems in a much different way than Dustin's character does He was very touched and very moved by his father's death, but he abandoned all his hopes for whatever he intended to do and he became a spy, a killer, a very jaded personality
In doing something truly suspenseful, Schlesinger accomplished a film that's largely about fear and it's about pain and the infliction of pain because of fear The thrilling sensation of great expectations came on the 47th Street in the diamond district in New York, where Schlesinger gets the best of it