QB VII (miniseries)


QB VII is an American television miniseries produced by Screen Gems; it was also the final program from Columbia Pictures's television division to be made under the Screen Gems banner. It began airing on ABC on April 29, 1974. Adapted to the screen by Edward Anhalt from the 1970 novel QB VII, it was produced by Douglas S. Cramer and directed by Tom Gries. The original music was written by Jerry Goldsmith and the cinematography by Paul Beeson and Robert L. Morrison.
The six-and-a-half-hour miniseries won seven Primetime Emmy Awards of the 14 for which it was nominated.

Plot

Dr. Adam Kelno, a Pole, escapes from a Nazi concentration camp. During his recovery, he romances his nurse, Angela, and eventually marries her and settles in England.
After the end of World War II, the communists try to extradite Dr. Kelno for war crimes as a doctor working for the Nazis, performing medical experiments on Jewish prisoners. They fail to prove their case and Kelno is vindicated, but he takes his wife to the Middle East to escape the notoriety afterward.
During World War II, Abraham Cady was wounded, also marrying his nurse, Samantha, though he cheats on her, eventually taking up with Lady Margaret. Initially atheistic, Cady re-connects with his Jewish heritage while in Israel to see his ill father, who dies shortly after his arrival.
Cady writes a book, called The Holocaust, naming Dr. Kelno as a Nazi collaborator who performed forced sterilizations on Jewish prisoners. Kelno brings a lawsuit for libel against Cady, which is heard in the London courts.
Kelno insists on his innocence. Cady is defiant when confronted by Kelno and reporters outside the courtroom. Kelno denies in court sterilizing healthy Jews at the behest of the S.S. but Cady's barrister presents evidence that Kelno castrated hundreds of healthy Jews as punishments or as medical experiments, and that some of them died as a result.
Kelno is devastated when his son turns on him and throws him out. Cady, too, loses his son, the young man dying while serving in the Israeli military.
The jury finds in favor of Kelno but only gives him damages in the sum of one half-penny, "the lowest coin in the realm", for damages to Kelno's reputation.

Cast

#This was Jack Hawkins's final movie role. He had already had a laryngectomy for throat cancer, and used esophageal speech in his speaking parts. He died soon after filming was completed.

DVD releases

QB VII was released as a Region 1 DVD on May 29, 2001.