This was obviously made to cash in on the news of the arrest of Adolf Eichmann.The main character actually looks rather like Himmler.It is an absorbing mixture of Nazi hunting with a more routine crime drama tacked on.There are it has to be said a number of points where you need to suspend disbelief.The first is to imagine that there were a large number of upper echelon Nazis loose in England at that time,when it was clear that most of them had made their way to South America.The second is the coincidence and irony in the fact that the Nazi is sheltered by a victim of his brutality.Some of the crime scenes are straight out of the B movie copybook.However the constant references to the Holocaust make this a film worth viewing.
8 Reviews
Basic thriller
marcusblock-7142021 January 2019
Cheap and to the point
Leofwine_draca25 October 2018
Warning: Spoilers
THE PURSUERS is a cheap British character drama with thriller elements. It's generally a slightly tired and predictable kind of movie, one that never really comes together despite some diverse elements and a timely plot following on from the real-life arrest of Nazi architect Eichmann. The underrated Francis Matthews plays a concentration camp survivor who arrives in Britain to capture a Nazi camp leader masquerading under an assumed name. As with many crime flicks of this era, the action centres around a sleazy nightclub where Matthews becomes involved with a femme fatale and some extraneous characters are bumped off. It's brief enough to never bore, but there's nothing here that wasn't done better elsewhere.
A very exciting yarn.
searchanddestroy-122 June 2009
Warning: Spoilers
What a wonderful surprise I had today. It would be great if all British movies from this era were the same, so fast paced and breathtaking. The topic is rather unusual, especially when it is about war criminals. Nazi ones. Of course, it was inspired by Adolf Eichman's capture by the israeli secret service, the MOSSAD, in South America. And we can prefer RG Springsteen OPERATION EICHMAN. But this Danzigers's product, written by the famous Brian Clemens every one knows - the screen writer of many British films and TV series such Avengers - is sharply made. The story focuses more on the war criminal, nearly the lead, than on the nazi hunter.
The ex nazi is a nasty character, wearing glasses, with a moustache and not handsome at all. And he is shown in this feature as if he was the "poor hero" hunted down by the "villains" or accused of a murder he did not commit. And our "lead" has committed thousands of crimes, during the war, in a concentration camp !!! He is helped by a Jewish - and beautiful woman - who is of course unaware of his real identity. And he needs a new passport, and in that purpose he has to ask to a bunch of hoodlums. Hoodlums who decide to take much cash from him.
So, the "poor" guy - a Nazi, I repeat - is tracked by Nazi hunters and gangsters...
The nazi hunter is not the real lead in this story and I find that surprising and exciting at the most. He is not the guy the beautiful woman has to help.
I won't tell more about this very good B crime movie. But I can swear that it's worthwhile.
The ex nazi is a nasty character, wearing glasses, with a moustache and not handsome at all. And he is shown in this feature as if he was the "poor hero" hunted down by the "villains" or accused of a murder he did not commit. And our "lead" has committed thousands of crimes, during the war, in a concentration camp !!! He is helped by a Jewish - and beautiful woman - who is of course unaware of his real identity. And he needs a new passport, and in that purpose he has to ask to a bunch of hoodlums. Hoodlums who decide to take much cash from him.
So, the "poor" guy - a Nazi, I repeat - is tracked by Nazi hunters and gangsters...
The nazi hunter is not the real lead in this story and I find that surprising and exciting at the most. He is not the guy the beautiful woman has to help.
I won't tell more about this very good B crime movie. But I can swear that it's worthwhile.
The Banality Of Evil
boblipton27 January 2023
A group of concentration camp survivors get together to track down surviving perpetrators of the Holocaust. Their target for this movie is the commandant of of a concentration camp, mousy little Cyril Shaps. He gets wind of this and makes a run for it, but they know the name he has been living under. He takes refuge with Susan Denny, a club singer who can get him a fake passport. She is a concentration camp survivor.
Those ironies aside this turns into a generic chase drama. I find myself caught between thinking it should be something more, and the thought that the master thought is Hannah Arendt's reporting on Eichmann's trial: she found him rather ordinary, and offered the thought that he was an example of the banality of evil, when people don't do things out of some grand conviction or massive flaw of character, but because doing the job well on its own terms offered him a chance at advancement in the bureaucracy.
Director Geoffrey Grayson had a career in B pictures and television -- he also directed four episodes of the TV series THE PURSUERS, in which Louis Hayward starred as a police inspector with a police dog. He didn't direct any A pictures, and had no noticeable style. I am caught between thinking that this is another passable thriller, and the choices are deliberate and effective. Perhaps that's why he got the job directing this.
Those ironies aside this turns into a generic chase drama. I find myself caught between thinking it should be something more, and the thought that the master thought is Hannah Arendt's reporting on Eichmann's trial: she found him rather ordinary, and offered the thought that he was an example of the banality of evil, when people don't do things out of some grand conviction or massive flaw of character, but because doing the job well on its own terms offered him a chance at advancement in the bureaucracy.
Director Geoffrey Grayson had a career in B pictures and television -- he also directed four episodes of the TV series THE PURSUERS, in which Louis Hayward starred as a police inspector with a police dog. He didn't direct any A pictures, and had no noticeable style. I am caught between thinking that this is another passable thriller, and the choices are deliberate and effective. Perhaps that's why he got the job directing this.
Noble Intentions but No Panache
ofallthebores11 May 2019
The Pursuers
CinemaSerf11 February 2023
This has something of a television episode look to it, but it's still quite an engaging thriller that follows the efforts of "David" (a rather wooden Francis Matthews) to track down a former Nazi living in London. "Luther" (Cyril Shaps) is living quietly and successfully when he discovers that he is in the firing line. He concludes that a friendship with a Jewish lady might help divert suspicion, so alights on holocaust survivor "Jenny" (Susan Denny) but will this prove sufficient to keep him safe? Will she be duped too? There is never any jeopardy as to the result with this, and the production is rather stage-bound and basic, but the story is quite well written and Shaps - as his character begins to succumb to panic and desperation - is quite effective before a rather rushed denouement. Fans of the BBC wartime sitcom "'Allo 'Allo" might spot Richard Marner in one of his early roles here too.
Absorbing Thriller
iancrockford-9630922 February 2020
I came across this British Thriller for the first time this week. This is an atmospheric film that follows the hunt for a nazi concentration camp commandant in post war London. Good acting, excellent script. Well worth a view
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