Headscratchers / Marathon Man

• Why does Szell go to a New York diamond market in person to do business when he could send a lackey or do business by phone?
  • Is it safe? Is it safe? Szell is too paranoid to do this. As Babe mentions in the film's (and I think the book's) ending, all of the trouble came because the Nazi was afraid that he would be robbed by anyone he worked with. The book has a few excerpts of his thought process, obsessing over his safety.
  • ''CALL THE POLICE!!''
    • What are the police going to do when the people after Babe are working for a rather shadowy branch of the government?
• Szell's plan is to sell a couple of million dollars worth of diamonds in NYC. Thus setting off a whole host of issues of selling them off in bulk. Or to smuggle them back to Paraguay and try to get around customs?
• If Janeway's knife is a "collapsible knife" as Szell says, how does it stick into the thug's back? And how is it a collapsible knife if we clearly see that the blade rotates out rather than extends and retracts straight into the handle?