'Cast a Giant Shadow': A 1966 ode to Israel’s first general, Mickey Marcus

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

News

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

We roll out with three Jangles -- news with a Jewish angle. Borschel-Dan gives her favorite actress, 96-year-old June Squib, a shoutout for her recent Tony nomination for "Marjorie Prime." Hoffman discusses his recent discovery of a famous Jewish porn star and also the new reboot of "Lord of the Flies" which hints that one of the boys is Jewish.

We then turn to "Cast a Giant Shadow," the 1966 biopic of Colonel Mickey Marcus. David Daniel "Mickey" Marcus was a complicated character who was foundational to the organization of what became the Israel Defense Force. The United States Army colonel, who was later dubbed Israel's first general, was also instrumental at the Nuremberg Trials.

Kirk Douglas plays Marcus and the rest of the all-star cast includes Senta Berger, Yul Brynner, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and Angie Dickinson.

The movie maven and our host disagreed about the film, so stick around to see if "Cast a Giant Shadow" gets an "oy," "meh" or "not bad" in this week's The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Times of Israel's The Real Shmooze, bringing you all the Jewish entertainment news and movie reviews anyone can use.
0:13.6	I'm your host, Amanda Borschal Dan here with our movie maven Jordan Hoffman.
0:18.5	Jordan, how are things in New Jersey? You're wearing a cap. So I imagine it's kind of... It's a little cold today. You know, it's mid-May. It should be warm. And it's, you know, we record this. It's super early here because of the time difference. And it's really cold, but I didn't want to turn the heat on because it's like, no, it's mid-May.
0:40.9	I'm not turning the heat on because, you know, that's ridiculous.
0:44.3	So instead I'm just putting on a hat because it's cold. And you know what?
0:45.4	If you ask any of my children, how I relate to heat is I think in, you know, December, it's ridiculous to put the heat on.
0:53.3	And so it's quite possible
0:54.6	you'll find any number of the seven children wearing coats and hats in the house. But you know what?
1:00.0	That's okay. That's life. That's life. And it's no wonder that our electricity bills are about
1:04.8	half those of our neighbors. Right. What a puzzle. Good job. I'm proud of you. Thank you.
1:10.0	So we have actually a lot of jangles this week, and there's one that I will just quickly stick in because it relates to my favorite actress of all time.
1:20.1	Is that true? She's your favorite actresses of all time or just a recent time? She is right. The second. Okay, good.
1:24.6	The second she is. Yes. And I'm talking, of course, about June Squib, because who else would I be speaking about?
1:31.6	And she is the 96-year-old delight that I just first heard of about six months ago.
1:37.9	How long have we doing this podcast?
1:40.0	I think about six months, yeah.
1:42.5	Yeah.
1:43.1	And she is up for an Emmy, right?
1:47.5	No, a Tony Award.
1:48.9	A Tony, terrible.
1:50.4	I'm a horrible report.
1:51.4	That's okay.
	...

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