The Man in the Glass Booth

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A 1975 film starring Maximilian Schell as highly eccentric, possibly insane Jewish New York City businessman Arthur Goldman. We are introduced to Goldman as he issues orders to his assistant Charlie Cohen over business, rants about the death of his father in Auschwitz at the hands of SS Colonel Karl Dorf, whom he barely survived, and seems paranoid that Dorf remains alive, trying to finish him. Goldman compares himself to Jesus Christ and generally comes off as a raving, nearly mad man. Then his paranoid fantasies seem to be justified, as the same car is seen across from his building numerous times, and he finally orders Charlie to go confront its occupants. They turn out to be Israeli agents, who burst into his apartment with guns drawn, accusing him of being Dorf, and displaying medical evidence which they say prove it. Proudly admitting it now, Dorf is taken back to Israel and put on trial for crimes against humanity, where he defends himself (in SS uniform) from inside of a glass booth, hence the title.

Tropes used in The Man in the Glass Booth include:
  • Hannibal Lecture: Dorf delivers several epic ones, most while on trial.
  • Large Ham: Schell is an incredible example, hamming it up nonstop in the film as Goldman/Dorf, chewing the scenery furiously.
  • The Reveal: It seems the prosecution has an open and shut case against Dorf at first, particularly since he corroborates all the evidence they present, with pride. Except -- a dentist is called to authenticate an X-Ray of Dorf's teeth, who reveals they were replaced with the defendant's for money. The physician is recalled to admit that he did the same with X-Rays of Dorf's spine from a surgery. He was Goldman all along. When asked why he did it, Goldman first locks himself in the booth, then sits inside as the memory of his experience overtakes him. At last he goes catatonic, having apparently been driven insane by this. It seems that was his reason for pretending to be Dorf in this way.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: How did Goldman manage to learn so much about Dorf, and have himself identified as being him by eyewitnesses?.
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