What her character does in the movie,Lilli Palmer did it in real life:she fleed from nazi Germany in 1940;so Frankenheimer did a good choice by casting her as Caine's mother.But Caine himself was a questionable one:he's neither German nor American and I think that Klaus Maria Brandauer would have been more credible.Is it possible ,for instance ,that Caine never utters a German word whereas his mother probably talked to him in that language when he was a child?
This is minor quibble:for once ,and for the first time in almost twenty years ,Frankenheimer had a very good start.Some kind of revenge beyond the grave,which gives the movie an eeerie flavor ,this fantasy touch which produced great works such as " Mandchurian candidate" and "seconds" in the sixties (I pass over in silence the horrible "prophecy").Good idea indeed ,but mediocre screenplay ,which the writers almost completely ruin.Plot holes by the dozen,hackneyed tricks (the dog!I have not mentioned the dog!),and a last scene which is only a pale copy of that of "the Mandchurian candidate".
