War films were ten-a-penny on both sides of the Atlantic in the aftermath of World War II, as there was a great public demand for enlightenment as to "how we won the war". Films about the Holocaust, however, were rare during this period; it is as though the subject seemed to daunt film-makers by its very enormity. "The Juggler" is one of the few exceptions, and even this film is less about the events of the Holocaust itself than with the attempts of a survivor to build a new life for himself. It is also one of the few Hollywood movies from this period to be set in contemporary Israel.
The title character is Hans Müller, once a famous professional juggler in Germany who was persecuted by the Nazis because of his Jewish origins. The film opens with Hans's arrival at Haifa in 1949. Along with other recent arrivals he is placed in a refugee camp, an unfortunate move because, although he is not a prisoner, the camp reminds him of the concentration camps in which he was held in Germany. Hans's ordeal has also left him with an ingrained distrust of any authority figure. He walks out of the camp and goes into the city, where he is questioned by a policeman. Panicking, Hans attacks the man, leaving him seriously injured. Hans flees, and later meets a teenage named Josh and a female kibbutz member named Yael, both of whom help him to come to terms with his traumas.
Hans is played by Kirk Douglas, who was himself Jewish and a supporter of Israel; he was later to make "Cast a Giant Shadow" about an Israeli war hero, General David Marcus. While this is not among Douglas's best films, he does enough to convey something of the psychological anguish which Hans is going through. We never learn exactly what he experienced, although we learn that his wife and children died in the camps. His problems are not due solely to traumatic memories alone. He also suffers from feelings of guilt about the death of his family because he admits that he ignored warnings to flee Germany, believing that his fame as a popular entertainer would protect him. Intellectually he knows that his family are dead, but in his heart he cannot accept this; at one point he tries to greet a woman he has never met before as his wife.
Of the other actors, the best is probably Joseph Walsh as young Josh. Milly Vitale, with her elegantly permed blonde hair and immaculate make-up, never really seemed convincing as a female kibbutznik. The main problem, however, is that we can never really sympathise with the protagonist; on the one hand he is a man who has suffered much, but on the other he is a man who has viciously assaulted, and nearly killed, another man. The injured policeman seems to get forgotten, as though his sufferings are unimportant when compared to Hans's.
In 1953 it was a brave move by director Edward Dmytryk to tackle a drama with a Holocaust theme, but in more recent decades there have been a lot more films on this theme, some of them much better, notably Alan J. Pakula's "Sophie's Choice" and Spielberg's "Schindler's List". Nor can it compare with some of Douglas's great films such as "Young Man with a Horn", "Champion", "Ace in the Hole" or "Lust for Life". It is perhaps therefore not surprising that, notwithstanding the bravery of its director and the presence of a major Hollywood star, "The Juggler" should have faded into relative obscurity. 6/10.
The title character is Hans Müller, once a famous professional juggler in Germany who was persecuted by the Nazis because of his Jewish origins. The film opens with Hans's arrival at Haifa in 1949. Along with other recent arrivals he is placed in a refugee camp, an unfortunate move because, although he is not a prisoner, the camp reminds him of the concentration camps in which he was held in Germany. Hans's ordeal has also left him with an ingrained distrust of any authority figure. He walks out of the camp and goes into the city, where he is questioned by a policeman. Panicking, Hans attacks the man, leaving him seriously injured. Hans flees, and later meets a teenage named Josh and a female kibbutz member named Yael, both of whom help him to come to terms with his traumas.
Hans is played by Kirk Douglas, who was himself Jewish and a supporter of Israel; he was later to make "Cast a Giant Shadow" about an Israeli war hero, General David Marcus. While this is not among Douglas's best films, he does enough to convey something of the psychological anguish which Hans is going through. We never learn exactly what he experienced, although we learn that his wife and children died in the camps. His problems are not due solely to traumatic memories alone. He also suffers from feelings of guilt about the death of his family because he admits that he ignored warnings to flee Germany, believing that his fame as a popular entertainer would protect him. Intellectually he knows that his family are dead, but in his heart he cannot accept this; at one point he tries to greet a woman he has never met before as his wife.
Of the other actors, the best is probably Joseph Walsh as young Josh. Milly Vitale, with her elegantly permed blonde hair and immaculate make-up, never really seemed convincing as a female kibbutznik. The main problem, however, is that we can never really sympathise with the protagonist; on the one hand he is a man who has suffered much, but on the other he is a man who has viciously assaulted, and nearly killed, another man. The injured policeman seems to get forgotten, as though his sufferings are unimportant when compared to Hans's.
In 1953 it was a brave move by director Edward Dmytryk to tackle a drama with a Holocaust theme, but in more recent decades there have been a lot more films on this theme, some of them much better, notably Alan J. Pakula's "Sophie's Choice" and Spielberg's "Schindler's List". Nor can it compare with some of Douglas's great films such as "Young Man with a Horn", "Champion", "Ace in the Hole" or "Lust for Life". It is perhaps therefore not surprising that, notwithstanding the bravery of its director and the presence of a major Hollywood star, "The Juggler" should have faded into relative obscurity. 6/10.