THE JUGGLER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 776, 4 June 1954, Page 21

THE JUGGLER

(Columbia-Stanley Kramer) OMPARED with The Man Between the new Stanley Kramer production is a loosely-constructed film, but in com; passion and depth of characterisation it is miles ahead. Mr. Kramer has a notable record for this sort of thing, from The Men to Death of a Salesman; and for The Juggler he has used a sympathetic director, Edward Dymtryk, who was responsible also for an_ earlier Kramer study of neurosis, The Sniper, as well, of course, as a number of other good films. The surprising-to me, as-tonishing-thing about The Juggler is that Kirk Douglas was chosen for the lead and that he gets across a character so different from those we have been used to seeing him play. The juggler is a former variety star, Hans Muller, a German-Jewish refugee who finds himself in a wire-enclosed camp when he arrives in Israel in 1949. Suspicious of all authority, he escapes, wounds a policeman who pursues and corners him, and takes to the road in an attempt to remain free. His wanderings end in a farming community, where he finds hope in the love of a woman (Milly Vitale) and the continued devotion of a boy he has picked up on the road; and this is the setting for the film’s moving climax. I’ve never doubted that Mr. Douglas is a good actor, but I had not imagined him in a part where that rather disturbing mouth and jaw would not be all too obviously part of his character. Of course, all the old energy and much of the aggressiveness are used in this film, but from the start--there is a powerful scene when he imagines a woman at the camp is the wife who died while he was in a concentration camp-he is completely master of the part of an emotionally sick, disillusioned and haunted man. His scenes with a little girl he befriends and his relationship with the boy who shares his wanderings are particularly touching. He turns on a delightful clowning act, too, made all the more effective for us because we know the police are already closing i in, and among other good scenes is one in which the tearful little girl is persuaded to surrender his photograph and so make it harder for him to stay free. Filmed largely in Israel, The Juggler has, besides the qualities I've mentioned, some interesting and unusual locations. It’s a film you should look out for.