After The Day of the Jackal (1973), The Odessa File (1974) was the second Frederick Forsyth novel to be adapted for the big screen; Fred Zinnemann's The Day of the Jackal (1973). The year is 1963, and Egypt has amassed an arsenal of rockets aimed
toward Israel. It needs only a missile guidance system, which is in fact
being developed in Germany by scientists associated with Odessa, a
secret society of former SS officers from Hitler's regime. When an
elderly Jewish man named Solomon Tauber commits suicide, reporter Peter
Miller (Jon Voight) gets hold of his diary. It recounts Tauber's horrific experiences
in the Riga concentration camp, particularly the cruelty of Eduard
Roschmann, commandant and SS captain. A friend of Tauber tells Miller
that Roschmann is still alive under a different name, so Miller goes on a
quest to locate him. With the help of Israeli intelligence, he assumes
the identity of a recently deceased ex-Nazi and attempts to infiltrate
Odessa's carefully protected ranks, both to bring Roschmann to justice
and to protect Israel from the impending missile threat.
(background and synopsis from TCM)
Miller's girlfriend Sigi, (Mary Tamm) after taking a shower...
The term ODESSA stands for "Organisation der ehemaligen SS Angehorigen",
which translates to: Organization of the former SS members. Eduard Roschmann was a real-life wanted war criminal living in South
America. He became even more wanted after the book and movie, and he
turned up dead, rumoured to have been killed by Odessa to stop the
search for him that the media had begun.
(background and synopsis from TCM)
