Word: topol
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Before Winter Comes is a film to be remembered-rather than seen. It has a vague plot, conventional camerawork and a feeble scenario. But it also serves as the major debut of a major performer: Israeli Actor Topol...
...Topol has starred before-in Sallah, a minor movie produced and shot in his homeland. But this is his first leading role in an international big-budget project. It is difficult to see where the money went. Certainly little of it was spent developing the story. In an army camp, circa 1945, a British major (David Niven) tries to impose order on an overflow of displaced persons. From the serried ranks a leader named Janovic emerges. As played by Topol, he is a sleight-of-tongue artist. Janovic can lie in a dozen languages and seduce a girl with...
Although he likes to play the Eternal Survivor, Janovic cannot avoid the relentless Red pursuit. The slow chase provides the picture's sporadic suspense and tragic finale. With an indefinable accent, Topol handles the script's half-aphorisms with more panache than they deserve ("It is easier to know ten lands than one man"). His hypnotic combination of shy manner and sly authority steals the film from Niven-a feat comparable to picking Dillinger's pocket...
Born in 1935, Chaim Topol began his show-business career as a barracks clown in the Israeli army. His performances became such a morale factor that headquarters ordered him to be an actor. He has been following those orders ever since. Topol's most important future role is Tevye in the film version of Fiddler on the Roof...
There could be no better choice. Tevye is the very image of an impoverished Jewish father who makes his ragged clothes seem every bit as fair as Joseph's coat. After turning Before Winter Comes into a movie, Topol should find Fiddler a vacation...