Five Holocaust survivors, one mah jongg night, and a Nazi doctor who ordered the wine special.
The members of a San Diego Wednesday night womens' mah jongg club are five survivors of a Nazi concentration camp. They recognize the owner of a local restaurant, Walter Grossman, as a doctor from the camp who performed experiments on them as young girls. To their horror they learn that he has already been tried as a war criminal and has served but a few years for his crimes. They decide that they will "execute" him, drawing lots to determine which one will perform the act, without letting the others know who it is.
Acting
Loretta Swit and Jessica Walter devastating as survivors turned avengers.
Writing
The lottery scene — unbearable tension without showing the act.
Director
Paul Wendkos
Loretta Swit
Marysia Walenka
Rip Torn
Wilheim Gehbert
Jessica Walter
Gertrude Simon
Barbara Barrie
Sophie Langbein
Sandy Dennis
Elsa Spahn
Valerie Harper
Hannah Epstein
Martin E. Brooks
Martin Renner
Michael Lerner
Sidney Ferraro
Allan Miller
Ted Simon
Alan Oppenheimer
Max Langbein
John Randolph
Judge
Peter White
Gil Spahn
Robert Hooks
Alton Reese
Rita Zohar
Jered Barclay
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on a novel by Oliver Crawford, himself a blacklist survivor who knew something about justice delayed.
This 1985 TV movie aired when Nazi hunters were still actively finding aging war criminals in American suburbs — the fear was real.
US
