21. TWINNERS CIRCLE: Scientists rejoice! Human cloning has been achieved.

Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) died so that Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) could learn that Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) lives and plans on killing 94 civil servants near retirement. Despite being exhausted by the world, Ezra forms a team with his sister Esther (Lilli Palmer), journalist Sidney Beynon (Denholm Elliot) and vigilante David Bennett (John Rubinstein) to stop the murders.

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet of the Apes) and written by Heywood Gould (Rolling Thunder) from the book by Ira Levin, this is about the children — clones! — of Adolf Hitler, who have been placed all over the world.

Two years before this, Olivier would play a Nazi in Marathon Man. Here, he seems way more kindly than the character is in the book that inspired it.

Oddly, this is a movie that my wife’s family watched and quoted all of the time. Maybe they just like watching dogs maul evil German doctors. Who can say? Even today, long after this was made, just saying the title of the movie suggests a vast conspiracy.

Ira Levin had to be the richest man ever. Just look at the movies of his books: A Kiss Before Dying, Critic’s Choice, Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, Deathtrap, Sliver and more. Several were filmed more than once and had sequels.