Marathon Man (1976)

Taglines: One man’s dangerous attempts to clear his father’s name.

Marathon Man movie storyline. Thomas “Babe” Levy, whose brother Henry James “Doc” Levy is an oil business executive, is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Columbia University. He is also training as a marathon runner. Babe is paying homage to his deceased father, H.B. Levy, in pursuing the same studies as him, his father who committed suicide while being under investigation in the Communist witch hunts. Babe’s work does not sit well with Doc who wants Babe to move on with his life.

While at Columbia, Babe meets and begins to date Elsa Opel, a foreign exchange student also in History. While out for a walk in Central Park late one night, Babe and Elsa are mugged, the unusual aspect of it being that their attackers were men in suits. Babe will learn that the mugging was not a random attack after someone close to Babe is found murdered, the deceased who was not who he purported to be. From here, Babe is thrown into an international conspiracy concerning Nazi war criminal Christian Szell in hiding, and a large cache of diamonds.

In the process, Babe learns that Szell’s associates are after him believing that he was passed sensitive information by the deceased before his death. Not knowing anything about what’s going on, Babe has to decide who he can and cannot trust while he works to find out what’s going on. In Babe discovering what’s happening around him, his issue with Szell becomes personal.

Marathon Man is a 1976 American suspense-thriller film directed by John Schlesinger. It was adapted by William Goldman from his 1974 novel of the same title and stars Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane and Marthe Keller. In the film, “Babe” Levy, a graduate student (Hoffman), becomes embroiled in a plot by Nazi war criminal Christian Szell (Olivier) to retrieve stolen diamonds from a safety deposit box owned by Szell’s dead brother. Babe becomes unwittingly involved due to his brother Doc’s (Roy Scheider) dealings with Szell. The film was a critical and box office success, with Olivier earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Szell, the film’s antagonist.

About the Story

Thomas “Babe” Levy is a history Ph.D. student and avid runner researching the same field as his father, who committed suicide after being investigated during the Joseph McCarthy era. Babe’s brother, Henry, known as “Doc”, poses as an oil company executive but is actually a government agent working for a secret agency headed by Peter Janeway (William Devane). One of Doc’s jobs is to serve as a diamond courier for the infamous Nazi war criminal Dr. Christian Szell, in return for the latter’s assistance in tracking down other Nazi war criminals.

Szell is known as der weiße Engel (German for The White Angel) due to his prominent mane of white hair. A wanted war criminal, Szell is ensconced in South America and is living off a large cache of diamonds which he had taken from Jews killed at Auschwitz. The diamonds are kept inside a safety deposit box at a bank in New York City and are withdrawn as needed by Dr. Szell’s brother. After Szell’s brother is killed in a traffic accident, Szell feels that he can’t trust anybody anymore and proceeds to have all of the diamond handlers and couriers murdered, including Doc himself.

Escaping several murder attempts, Doc suspects that Szell will come to New York to retrieve his valuable diamond collection. Doc comes to New York under the guise of a visit to Babe. Meanwhile, Babe and his new girlfriend, Elsa Opel, who claims to be from Switzerland, are mugged by two men dressed in suits. When Doc takes Babe and Elsa to lunch, he tricks Elsa into revealing that she has been lying to Babe about her background. Though Doc suspects she may be connected to Szell, he tells Babe that she is seeking an American husband so that she can become a U.S. citizen. After Szell arrives in America, Doc confronts him, stating that he shouldn’t have involved Babe in these matters and that he himself is not to be trusted. Szell then takes Doc by surprise and stabs him with a blade concealed in his sleeve. Doc makes it back to Babe’s apartment and dies.

The police interrogate Babe until government agents, led by Janeway, arrive. Janeway asks Babe what Doc told him before he died, and tells Babe that his brother was a U.S. government agent. Babe insists that his brother did not tell him anything, but Janeway is convinced Doc would not have struggled all the way to Babe’s apartment without giving him vital information.

Babe is later abducted from his apartment by the two men who mugged him in the park, and he is tortured by Szell. During his torture, Babe is repeatedly asked, “Is it safe?”, but he continues to deny any knowledge. Babe is then rescued by Janeway, who explains that Szell is in America to sell off his large cache of diamonds. Janeway presses Babe about Doc’s dying words, but Babe still insists he knows nothing. Frustrated, Janeway reveals himself as a double agent and returns Babe to Szell. Still unable to extract anything from Babe, Szell drills into one of his healthy teeth. Babe eventually escapes, aided by his skills as a marathon runner.

Directed by: John Schlesinger
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver, Richard Bright, Marc Lawrence, Allen Joseph, Tito Goya, Ben Dova, Lou Gilbert, Nicole Deslauriers, James Wing Woo, Jacques Marin, Lotte Palfi Andor
Screenplay by: William Goldman
Production Design by: Richard Macdonald
Cinematography by: Conrad Hall
Film Editing by: im Clark
Costume Design by: Robert De Mora, Ann Roth
Set Decoration by: George Gaines
Art Direction by: Jack De Shields
Music by: Michael Small
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: October 8, 1976