Thomas "Babe" Levy is a history Ph.D. student and avid runner researching the same field as his father, who committed suicide after being investigated during the Joseph McCarthy era. Babe's brother, Henry, known as "Doc", poses as an oil company executive but is actually a government agent working for a secret agency headed by Peter Janeway (William Devane). One of Doc's jobs is to serve as a diamond courier for the infamous Nazi war criminal Dr. Christian Szell, in return for the latter's assistance in tracking down other Nazi war criminals. Szell is known as der weiße Engel (German for The White Angel) due to his prominent mane of white hair. A wanted war criminal, Szell is ensconced in South America and is living off a large cache of diamonds which he had taken from Jews killed at Auschwitz. The diamonds are kept inside a safety deposit box at a bank in New York City and are withdrawn as needed by Dr. Szell's brother. After Szell's brother is killed in a traffic accident, Szell feels that he can't trust anybody anymore and proceeds to have all of the diamond handlers and couriers murdered, including Doc himself. Escaping several murder attempts, Doc suspects that Dr. Szell will come to New York to retrieve his valuable diamond collection. Doc comes to New York under the guise of a visit to Babe. Meanwhile, Babe and his new girlfriend, Elsa Opel, who claims to be from Switzerland, are mugged by two men dressed in suits. When Doc takes Babe and Elsa to lunch, he tricks Elsa into revealing that she has been lying to Babe about her background. Though Doc suspects she may be connected to Szell, he tells Babe that she is seeking an American husband so that she can become a U.S. citizen. After Szell arrives in America, Doc confronts him, stating that he shouldn't have involved Babe in these matters and that he himself is not to be trusted. Szell then takes Doc by surprise and stabs him with a blade concealed in his sleeve. Doc makes it back to Babe's apartment and dies.... Directed by John Schlesinger Produced by Robert Evans Sidney Beckerman Screenplay by William Goldman Based on Marathon Man by William Goldman Starring Dustin Hoffman Laurence Olivier Roy Scheider William Devane Marthe Keller Music by Michael Small Cinematography Conrad Hall Edited by Jim Clark