QB VII (1974)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Ground rules first. This masterpiece (won a half dozen Emmys) is not merely a lost miniseries from the 70s, but rather it is the first miniseries of its kind, the template from which all later efforts came. And what an effort it was! Adapted from an international bestseller about a non-Jewish physician who ends up getting special treatment in a concentration camp by "assisting" with medical procedures. When the camp is liberated, said doctor becomes prominent in England, and he (and his family) enjoy the benefits and respect that brings. Until his reputation -- what he may or may not have actually done in that camp -- is challenged in England by an upstart American who is convinced that atrocities were committed. OMG what a cast. Here we have, in a performance of astonishing depth, Anthony Hopkins long before he became knighted, long before Hannibal. And Ben Gazarra giving the performance of his life in counterpoint to the doctor that Hopkins was portraying, as the American upstart. The story engages from the start and just gets better. And better. And better. Today it seems clichéd to have the finale take place in a courtroom but as I said this was the FIRST miniseries, and such criticisms have no substance. I recently saw this beginning to end for the first time in over 30 years, and was again stunned by the quality and the nuances. Like many of the productions that I focus on here on IMDb, it is a one of kind, something so special that to compare it is to misunderstand it. See it.

This was a land-breaking mini-series -- fine actors, quality cinematography, and superb production values. Anthony Quayle, Ben Gazzara, Jack Hawkins, Lee Remick and Anthony Hopkins are outstanding. TV was challenging the Hollywood film industry at the time in producing serious extended drama, and this time they scored. Note that some real survivors of the Holocaust (the actual atrocities of the real-life doctor on which the story is based) appeared in minor parts. Jack Hawkins had undergone surgery on his throat, and played his role struggling with a disability. Also, some extended courtroom dialog was shot in one take, since the actors (most notably Anthony Quayle) were so pumped about the roles they were playing.Many may have forgotten this outstanding (early) performance (as the hapless Adam Kelno) by Anthony Hopkins (who just doesn't seem to age!), who also appeared in a fine mini-series in this era about the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. Hopkins played Bruno Hauptmann, the man who was convicted for the kidnapping and murder.

I write this from a distance of 31 years after the fact. Time colors ones perspective. Anthony Hopkins is one of my all time favorite actors and I hated to see him as one of the doctors who experimented horrifically on Jewish patients. Nevertheless, it is a part designed for at least an Emmy nomination and I feel that Hopkins deserved one. Is it remotely possible that he was deliberately overlooked BECAUSE of the part he played? Perhaps. I would liked to have given the film a higher rating but feel it was sufficiently flawed to justify the 7 I gave it. Here are my reasons for doing so. 1. Abe Cady was an SOB throughout most of Part 1. His father dies and a single visit to bury his father in Israel changes his entire persona virtually overnight. It does not ring true. 2. Samantha Cady is the good guy in this and she is totally abandoned by her husband, son and the filmmakers; a fate she does not deserve. It is as if she were put in the film simply to produce a son who deserts his mother and is destined to die as punishment for Abe's early transgressions. 3. The important parts of the film are the trial sequences, a fair portion of which was devoted to exposing Jewish atrocities which had nothing to do with Cady's charges against Adam Kelno. 4. Unless I am mistaken, there was a point where Chief Justice Gilroy (Jack Hawkins) allows testimony subject to later connection which connection was never made. 5. I fail to understand why the Polish woman(?) revealed to Abe Cady the name of the man she loved who was in possession of a record that would destroy Kelno. 6. Unless I am mistaken, David Shawcross, Cady's lawyer played by Dan O'Herlihy, is only made aware of those records at the final moment in the trial and yet, is suddenly so thoroughly familiar with it that he is able to destroy Kelno's credibility point by point in the most dramatic sequence in the film. I suspect that if I had read the Leon Uris book, I would have given the film an even lower rating.

Strong acting and a blistering courtroom drama unfold in this six hour mini-series.Ben Gazzara and Anthony Hopkins are fantastic and the make-up job on Anthony Hopkins is phenomenal as the artist has him look the way he does now and the show is 25 years old.Very good entertainment that moves along at a rapid pace.