Judith 1966

Judith 1966

Judith is a 1966 drama film made by Command Productions, Cumulus Productions and Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Daniel Mann and produced by Kurt Unger from a screenplay by John Michael Hayes, based on the story by Lawrence Durrell. The music score was by Sol Kaplan and the cinematography by John Wilcox

The film stars Sophia Loren, Peter Finch and Jack Hawkins

This is why you hire Sophia Loren. In the middle of a complicated story she provides the  emotional anchor.. And she can do it without words. A few close-ups are all you need to guess at her inner turmoil in a world where, as with Play Dirty (1968), the individual is disposable. The good guys here, Israelis fighting for survival at the rebirth of their country, are every bit as ruthless as the commanding officers in the World War Two picture

And it’s just as well because the tale is both straightforward and overly complex. Like Cast a Giant Shadow, out the same year, or the earlier Exodus (1961), it’s about the early migrants staving off Arab attempts to destroy the tenuous foothold Jewish immigrants on the land with  the British, stuck in the role of maintaining law and order, cracking down on illegal landings of refugees and arms smuggling.  But where the earlier movies take the war to the enemy, this is all about defence, holding on to hard-won positions

Israeli leader Aaron (Peter Finch) discovers General Schiller (Hans Verner), a former German WW2 commander wanted for war crimes, currently in charge of the Arab tank regiment, is planning imminent assault. After locating Schiller’s wife Judith (Sophia Loren), he smuggles her into Israel with the intention of using her as bait to kidnap the general

Judith (1966)

Judith (1966)