An utterly fascinating WWII action-drama about a Bosque sheepherder (Anthony Quinn) who’s tapped by the Resistance to guide a scientist (James Mason) and his family (wife Patricia Neal, daughter Kay Lenz and son Paul Clemens) through the Pyrenees to safety. Hot on their trail, though, is a sadistic Nazi commandant – a go-for-broke performance from Malcolm McDowell that plays absolutely at odds with every other performance in the film!
One of the only movies produced by famed James Bond title designer Maurice Binder, “The Passage” was worked on by countless Bond series veterans, including cinematographer Michael Reed (“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”), cast members Michael Lonsdale (about to star in “Moonraker”) and Robert Brown (M to Roger Moore after Bernard Lee’s passing), and numerous behind-the-scenes personnel. Under the direction of J. Lee Thompson, the film plays out like a standard-issue – and old-fashioned – genre film, minus the sort of character development (there’s hardly any interplay between Quinn and Mason or his family) you’d expect to see.
What makes it oddly entertaining is the combination of its veteran cast of old pros with McDowell, who admits in a must-see interview in the Blu-Ray release that he took the role because it was the only title coming out of the British film industry in 1978. McDowell told Thompson he wanted to go crazy in the role and make the performance an encapsulation of “the entire Nazi regime.” He’s undeniably nuts in the film, wearing a swastika on his underwear and torturing Lonsdale in a chef’s hat (he’s as menacing as the Swedish Chef!) in R-rated, lurid sequences that seem as if they’ve come out of a different movie altogether.
Yet, the film’s meshing of PG-rated, old-fashioned genre tropes with a very contemporary, R-rated McDowell performance results in a film that’s impossible to look away from. Add in a topless Lenz, Christopher Lee “as the Gypsy,” gorgeous cinematography and a soaring score by Michael J. Lewis that’s unquestionably the best work I’ve heard from the composer, and you’ve got the recipe for a hugely flawed – but strangely watchable – picture that feels like a crossroads between "Old Hollywood" and then-modern '80s cinema.
Sporting a print that’s banged up and littered with nicks and scratches, “The Passage” was brought to Blu-Ray by exploitation/cult specialists Scorpion Releasing last year (available through Kino Lorber). The disc is absolutely worth it for McDowell’s hysterical interview alone, including the revelation that Mason asked him to “tone down” his performance (“I’m sorry, I can’t do that” he replied), Quinn’s off-camera shenanigans, Lenz’s reluctance to shoot the nude scene (“she read the script”), and even Lewis’ score. Another interview with Clemens and a superior, longer ending – better than the abrupt conclusion in the theatrical version – round out a very recommended disc.
