Levin's globe-trotting 1976 techno-thriller was brought to the screen in 1978 with a top-tier cast including Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck and James Mason. Also appearing in numerous cameos are such notables as Uta Hagen, Rosemary Harris (of the original company of Levin's Interlock), Prunella Scales ("Fawlty Towers"), and comedy great Anne Meara.

As per Levin's novel, the film contemplates the most malevolent use imaginable of nascent technology – i.e. human cloning. ("Dolly the Sheep" was still some 20 years away.)

LEVIN-ON-LEVIN

“In order for that situation [Hitler's rise] to repeat itself, you'd need severe economic conditions . . . You'd also need a charismatic leader, someone who could bring together divergent groups and parties solely through the power of his personality. However, I don't think it’s possible in this country . . . At least I hope so. With the advent of television, however—the ability to reach hundreds of millions of people at one time—a leader of this kind becomes even more dangerous.”
    —Levin (The Aquarian, 1978)

FUN FACTS

• A remake of the film almost happened circa 2007
• Legendary actor Uta Hagen has a memorable cameo as a prison inmate. Levin had five years earlier made an unsuccessful appeal to get her to appear in his stage play Veronica's Room
  
  Uta Hagen and Laurence Olivier in "The Boys from Brazil" • © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation