The Passage (1979)

the audience applauded

hyped garbage

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The acclaimed director of THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (J. Lee Thompson) churned out this lurid late seventies pot-boiler at a time when his best days were probably behind him. Ostensibly, a WWII adventure yarn about a Basque shepherd (Anthony Quinn) guiding a scientist (James Mason) his wife (Patricia Neal) and kids (Kay Lenz and Paul Clemens) across the Pyrenees and out of the clutches of the Nazis. Sounds a reasonable set-up on the surface of it, right?Throw into the mix Malcolm McDowell as Von Berkow, a Gestapo captain in hot pursuit and, yes, still sounds reasonable. I mean, bang in some tunes and the hills could be alive with the sound of them.However... At sixty-four Quinn's action man days were pretty much over. Yet out of the cast, he manages to be the most convincing character and at least seems the most physically capable. Mason looks frail and doddery at seventy. Patricia Neal looks like she's already died but someone's forgotten to tell her. There is as much chance of any of these people climbing mountains through deep snow and freezing temperatures as there is of me French-kissing Jessica Biel on top of an iceberg in the middle of the Sahara desert. Neal, especially, has difficulty managing a flight of steps (she was seriously ill in real life). It's ludicrous.Then to Malcolm McDowell. Not an actor renowned for subtlety, here he seems to have been completely let off the leash. His performance transcends all known boundaries of thespian restraint and spins off into a whole other far distant galaxy of pantomime excess. He is jaw-dropping. This is the most astonishing comedy caricature Gestapo-Nazi madman portrayal ever committed to film. By comparison, it makes his work in CALIGULA seem like John Gielgud whispering the poetry of Betjeman in Winchester Cathedral to an audience of the moral majority. If you have no other reason for watching this film, then I urge you to do so to marvel at McDowell and his interpretation of Nazi villainy. It'll mess with your head. Especially the sight of his underpants with the swastika motif. He later described it as "some of the best work I've ever done." Hopefully he was being satirical.Throw in some violent action, throat-slittings, finger amputations, burnings, explosions (anything resembling a structure that gets shot at blows up), rape, sodomy, a completely histrionic Captain Oates scene, avalanches and consistently brain-freezing dialogue and there you have it.It's not a good film, but it is a film that provides a good laugh if you're in the right frame of mind - and providing you can stand the mania and sadism.

I had watched this on PAL VHS during the late 1980s; it's an ill-advised (and misguided) attempt to update the big-budget, star-studded WWII adventure spectacle spearheaded by THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961) – by the same director and featuring one of its leads (Anthony Quinn), no less – for the more permissive 1970s (with new-fangled dollops of violence, sex and foul language). Being aware of its bad reputation (mostly due to Malcolm McDowell's outrageous contribution as the villain), I decided to give it another look when it turned up recently on Cable TV.The film involves a shepherd-cum-experienced mountain-climber (a rather glum Quinn) who's asked by the French resistance (in the figures of Marcel Bozzuffi and Michel Lonsdale) to take a prominent nuclear scientist (James Mason) and his family (including wife Patricia Neal and daughter Kay Lenz) across the Pyrenees to safety in neutral Spain; along the way, they're helped by a group of traveling gypsies (led by Christopher Lee), while McDowell is the maniacal SS officer in pursuit.The journey is fraught with problems – mainly caused by Neal's poor health (a really thankless role for the Oscar-winning actress), with which Quinn has little patience. Eventually, she decides to rid them of the burden and goes away to die in the snow (Quinn and Bozzuffi feel her emerging from the cabin where they're all sheltered, but do nothing to stop her!)…after which Mason tries to attack Quinn for pushing her to this, but falls flat on his face in the snow after only a couple of paces (this bit somehow reminded me of a scene from one of the NAKED GUN films in which George Kennedy lashes at a couple of bullies for mistreating his partner and ends up getting beaten to a pulp himself!). Lee, then, expires in a fiery death at the hands of the sadistic McDowell – except that whatever tension there was here is destroyed by its being continually cross-cut with the flight of the central group!However, the film's main source of entertainment is McDowell – especially via his campy attire as a chef while torturing the captured Lonsdale, his Swastika-imprinted underpants (during the scene in which he rapes Lenz), and even while mimicking the Fuehrer in front of a mirror (parting his hair a' la Hitler, putting the black comb above his lips as a makeshift moustache, and giving himself the Nazi salute). Surely it was no great stretch for him to go from this to Tinto Brass' CALIGULA (1979)! Worst of all, though, is the climax as a deranged and wounded McDowell turns up at the cabin (after having miraculously survived an avalanche he caused himself!) and bloodily exterminates the remaining members of the group…which transpires to be merely a delirious fantasy – one final folly enacted in his own head, and given away really by being intercut with snippets from scenes that have gone on before! – and that he's the one to perish. In the face of all this, Michael J. Lewis' sweeping score seems out of place – especially when considering that the action sequences are too few and far between, and certainly nothing to write home about when compared to the typical war movies of its ilk.

Okay, So this is an awful movie in the grand scheme of things - but its highly entertaining none the less, and also is quite compelling. McDowell over acts - but is watchable, Lenz is also watchable, and most of the other acting is fine too. The script lends itself to to a poor mans WW2 movie from the 60's, say a B movie - but otherwise there's good stuff along the way! This film is different, therefore worthy of a watch. A notable film score by Michael J lewis boosts it along and makes it feel 'bigger' than what it actually is. Not so bad. Watch it for entertainment value only, and you may not be too disappointed after all.

I saw this film years ago and am very disappointed to find that it is not available on VHS or DVD. Strange that any film my Malcolm should be unavailable as so much other dross is.This film is very violent with some humour attached. Not the most cerebral piece of work but neither is 'The Hills Have Eyes' or 'Nightmere on Elm Street' but they are cult movies.If this was released again, I am sure it would get an appreciable following for those with 'Bad Taste' and 'Brain Damage' - even Peter Jackson started with over the top violence & humour!Try and get a copy and see for yourself - don't be put off by these other 'critics'.Mark