Word: felix
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...latest in the Brattle's series of Bogart thrillers (Bogie plays the unseen, unheard Father-Confessor) is a somewhat low-budget cinema version of Thomas Mann's last novel. In The Confessions of Felix Krull, Mann presented a highly amusing account of one aspect of the Teutonic mind. His Felix Krull is a magnificently amoral charcater; his portrayal of Felix's life is exciting enough to stimulate readers to enter the Harvard confidence game...
...extent that Felix Krull is faithful to the novel, it is a success. However, in a few instances Director Kurt Hoffman and Screenwriter Robert Thoeren apparently thought they could improve on Mann's material. They were wrong. Their main mistake is in changing Felix Krull from a calculating, unprincipled opportunist to a sort of Horatio Alger who undeservedly benefits from immoral circumstances...
This change of character is further intensified by the ineffectual, boyish performance of Horst Buchholz, who plays the title role. Instead of the dashing Felix, Buchholz is an embarrassed bush leaguer playing in the big-time. Except for the highly humorous draft-dodging scene, Buchholz does not command the situation. This is indeed unfortunate, because although the other acting is quite sufficient, the role of Felix completely dominates the story...
...principal diversion from the plot of Mann's novel occurs in the movie's unsatisfactory conclusion. Mann intended to write another novel about the further adventures of Krull, but he did give his novel an hilarious and epiphanal conclusion with Felix's seduction of the mother of one of his lady friends. The film does include this appealing scene, but induces too much complexity into the ending, as well as an implausible love into the hero...
Diplomatic Diet. To document their case, the authors-Captain William J. Lederer, U.S.N., an Annapolis graduate and special assistant to Admiral Felix B. Stump in the Pacific, and Political Scientist and Novelist (The Ninth Wave) Eugene Burdick-have chosen to write a series of fictional sketches "based on fact." They are really a series of crude, black-and-white cartoons...