This dreadful movie is clearly a candidate for one of the 10 worst movies ever made. It's so bad that it's screamingly funny. McDowell, playing the evil Nazi chasing Mason's multi-accented family, catches up with Kay Lenz in a hotel room and, preparing to anal rape, drops his pants to reveal . . . a jock strap with a swastika on his crotch. This was not intended as a joke! The avalanche scene used offcuts from the avalanche in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Anthony Quinn as the shepherd who conducts the Mason clan over the Pyrenees is just a pathetic Zorba the Basque. The dialogue is at once stilted and ridiculous and the great cast sleepwalks through their roles. A definite must-not-see. Why did I see it? I did some of the legal work on this uber-turkey back in 1979 and went to the premiere. The impression it left was, regrettably, indelible.
Review of The Passage
