I have seen Richard Basehart in many things and I always thought he had potential but I never saw him do anything that made me go WOW!! That was good! That is until I saw this flick. I have read volumes on Hitler and have viewed and listened to Hitler's speeches at Nuremberg and the Reichstag and I think I have some sense of how he was and I think Richard Basehart did the best and most believable portrayal of him that I have ever seen. Hitler was of course extremely enigmatic and charismatic so he would be difficult to portray and I never saw anyone do a good portrayal of him until this film. The rest of the actors do a good job and the movie itself is fair to good; although it suffered from a low budget. Historically accurate as best I can recall. I think they relied heavily on Hughe Trevor Ropers history of him. But for all its good points see it for Richard Basehart he really shines in this!!
17 Reviews
This look at Hitler may be a hidden gem.
michaelRokeefe19 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Stuart Heisler directs this seldom seen film about the private life of Adolf Hitler. Hoping to find an explanation of the madman's methodical rise to power and demise of his domination of his war torn country ...look somewhere else. The evil dictator is shown struggling with his love life and reluctance to cooperate with his doctor(John Wengraf), who was trying to treat the leader with his impotency and Oedipal complex. Maria Emo plays Eva Braun; Heinrich Himmler is portrayed by Rick Traeger and Martin Kosleck plays Joseph Goebbels. The megalomaniac Hiter doesn't seem to see how his paranoia affects his decision making. Archival footage is employed to glue the movie's progression. Other cast members: Celia Lovsky, Narda Onyx, Gregory Gaye, John Mitchum, Carl Esmond and Sirry Steffen. This film is also known as Women of Nazi Germany. Those that harbor curiosity of Hitler should be pleased.
Interesting Omissions
irvberg200218 July 2011
Portraying Hitler as being in a virtually perpetually hysterical state, as this film does, is contrary to any historical reality. There are two interesting omissions in it. First, there is no mention, as far as I could ascertain, of what appears to have been Hitler's central obsession, his hatred of Jews, for the destruction of whom he devoted substantial resources which could have been used to further another of his obsessions, world conquest. Second, in the brief portrayal of the conquest of Poland, the film depicts the blackening of the entirety of a map of Poland to represent the Nazi conquest. However, the Nazis did not occupy all of Poland; they split Poland with their then ally, the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, with whom they had entered into an agreement beforehand to divide Poland between them, and pursuant to which the Soviets invaded and occupied the eastern half of Poland. Surely the producers of this film were aware of this fact, so why did did they omit it?
Completely ahistorical. A decent performance, but not great.
quijebo9916 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Richard Basehart is a good actor overall, so his performance is decent. But the film is so ahistorical that it should definitely be skipped. It is mainly a *psychological profile*, but the psychology is wrong. Its main strength is that it does show Hitler's complete disregard for Germany and its people during his last days.
As noted by someone else, this film seems to be based on Trevor-Roper's book. Roper's research, however, was done immediately after the war (to investigate/refute malicious Soviet accusations that Hitler was still alive and possibly living in a British-controlled area) and was based on *very few* direct witnesses (the Soviets had most of them in custody). Vast amounts of additional evidence have come out since then.
((In contrast, the German film "Downfall" is an absolutely *brilliant* portrayal that shows not only Hitler's megalomania, destructiveness and self-pity, but also his force of personality, particularly in the scene with von Greim. ("Downfall" seems based on the book "The Bunker", which is by far the best of the "Hitler's last days" books.)))
Just a few examples of the false things in the movie "Hitler" (in the examples, H is used as an abbrev for Hitler):
As noted by others, there is *no* evidence that H was impotent or homosexual. Some American and British psych people speculated on this, particularly during and immediately after the war, but they had no access to H.
H's interactions with Eva: everyone who met Eva said she had no interest in politics or the war and would never have challenged H on those topics.
The scenes of Stauffenberg's bombing and aftermath are ludicrous: H didn't notice the briefcase or comment on it; it was placed to H's right, not left; the bomb didn't go off for several minutes (giving Stauffenberg time to get away); and Stauffenberg was not hanged but shot (within hours of the bombing by a co-plotter trying to cover his own guilt), although many other co-plotters were hanged later.
The director allows Basehart to be much too physically vigorous, even though he does limp. H's health was *extremely* poor by April 1945. H, after all, had been under severe stress and been a drug addict for years. Eyewitnesses noted that H looked a decade older than he really was (and he was 56) and could often barely shuffle his feet forward. (Thus, by the way,there is *no* chance H escaped from the bunker and went to South America, or anywhere else. H feared capture far more than death, and so would never have risked trying to escape.)
As a more minor point, the Berchtesgaden/Berghof window/view in the film is pathetic compared to the actual window/view. The actual window was *huge* (much taller than a person), offered a panoramic view of the mountain and could be electronically lowered into the wall.
As noted by someone else, this film seems to be based on Trevor-Roper's book. Roper's research, however, was done immediately after the war (to investigate/refute malicious Soviet accusations that Hitler was still alive and possibly living in a British-controlled area) and was based on *very few* direct witnesses (the Soviets had most of them in custody). Vast amounts of additional evidence have come out since then.
((In contrast, the German film "Downfall" is an absolutely *brilliant* portrayal that shows not only Hitler's megalomania, destructiveness and self-pity, but also his force of personality, particularly in the scene with von Greim. ("Downfall" seems based on the book "The Bunker", which is by far the best of the "Hitler's last days" books.)))
Just a few examples of the false things in the movie "Hitler" (in the examples, H is used as an abbrev for Hitler):
As noted by others, there is *no* evidence that H was impotent or homosexual. Some American and British psych people speculated on this, particularly during and immediately after the war, but they had no access to H.
H's interactions with Eva: everyone who met Eva said she had no interest in politics or the war and would never have challenged H on those topics.
The scenes of Stauffenberg's bombing and aftermath are ludicrous: H didn't notice the briefcase or comment on it; it was placed to H's right, not left; the bomb didn't go off for several minutes (giving Stauffenberg time to get away); and Stauffenberg was not hanged but shot (within hours of the bombing by a co-plotter trying to cover his own guilt), although many other co-plotters were hanged later.
The director allows Basehart to be much too physically vigorous, even though he does limp. H's health was *extremely* poor by April 1945. H, after all, had been under severe stress and been a drug addict for years. Eyewitnesses noted that H looked a decade older than he really was (and he was 56) and could often barely shuffle his feet forward. (Thus, by the way,there is *no* chance H escaped from the bunker and went to South America, or anywhere else. H feared capture far more than death, and so would never have risked trying to escape.)
As a more minor point, the Berchtesgaden/Berghof window/view in the film is pathetic compared to the actual window/view. The actual window was *huge* (much taller than a person), offered a panoramic view of the mountain and could be electronically lowered into the wall.
unusual but not effective
Andy Sandfoss19 March 2001
Richard Basehart is OK as Hitler, even if a bit over the top. The rest of the cast is horrible, frankly. The film is an attempt to render Hitler from a psychological perspective, but the insights it offers are cartoonish oversimplifications at best, and can't make up its mind what Hitler's "problem" was. At one point it is implied he was impotent, at another point it is suggested he was homosexual. And always the business about his mother. The film offers more speculation than fact. The time frame of the film is a bit skewed too. Nothing of Hitler's youth is presented for a supposed psychological study. The year 1934 takes up nearly half the film; World War II gets at most ten minutes start to finish. In the end you have no more understanding of Hitler's personality, or his appeal to Germans, than you did at the outset. Which marks the film as a failure.
Der Fuehrer's Performance
bkoganbing22 July 2015
The character of Adolph Hitler will fascinate historians for more than the thousand years he wanted his Reich to last and for psychiatrists even more than that. The folks who are schooled in both disciplines get something to analyze with this film Hitler and Richard Basehart's performance in the title role.
As for performance the reason for Hitler being the nasty dude that he was that the Fuehrer was a dud in the bedroom. That was something Geli Raubel played by Cordula Tantrow said and signs her death warrant in saying same. In fact she more than hints at the reason, possible incest with his mother. Something that Hitler himself would reject after all psychiatry was simply "Jew science".
Eva Braun portrayed here by Maria Emo is another ill defined role. If we believe Albert Speer's memoir Eva was basically a nice girl without a political thought in her head, but was simply a power groupie and a celibate one at that.
Such familiar faces as Hogan's Heroes Sgt.Schultz played by John Banner is Gregor Strasser, John Mitchum is Hermann Goering, and the obligatory Martin Kosleck is Joseph Goebbels. Berry Kroeger is Ernst Roehm with barely a hint of the homosexuality that later offended Hitler so mightily after when he had to make a deal with the army. The Code was still in place, but you'll spot it in the film.
Richard Basehart gives a sincere portrayal of Hitler. But the film is badly written and directed.
As for performance the reason for Hitler being the nasty dude that he was that the Fuehrer was a dud in the bedroom. That was something Geli Raubel played by Cordula Tantrow said and signs her death warrant in saying same. In fact she more than hints at the reason, possible incest with his mother. Something that Hitler himself would reject after all psychiatry was simply "Jew science".
Eva Braun portrayed here by Maria Emo is another ill defined role. If we believe Albert Speer's memoir Eva was basically a nice girl without a political thought in her head, but was simply a power groupie and a celibate one at that.
Such familiar faces as Hogan's Heroes Sgt.Schultz played by John Banner is Gregor Strasser, John Mitchum is Hermann Goering, and the obligatory Martin Kosleck is Joseph Goebbels. Berry Kroeger is Ernst Roehm with barely a hint of the homosexuality that later offended Hitler so mightily after when he had to make a deal with the army. The Code was still in place, but you'll spot it in the film.
Richard Basehart gives a sincere portrayal of Hitler. But the film is badly written and directed.
Basehart's Best Performance as Der Fuhrer!
csdietrich18 February 2001
HITLER, an Allied Artists production in 1962 was THE definitive portrayal of Adolph Hitler as I know and understand him in my extensive readings. More a psychological portrait, my closest friend at least conveyed to Mrs. Basehart at an art opening in Beverly Hills that I considered this her husband's finest portrayal. If only I had the good fortune to have met him during his lifetime to convey this! The entire cast is superb and the only flaw in this effort was its limited budget which relied on a great deal of stock footage from the Second World War. Martin Kosleck shines in his role as does the rest of the cast. A landmark film for all time and an accurate representation of the most complex and demonic personality of the entire 1900s.
He tries, but why make it at all?
HotToastyRag27 October 2022
I don't think we'll ever really know why actors sign a contract to portray Adolph Hitler in a movie. Don't they know it's a mistake that could ruin their careers forever? Perhaps, as was the case for Alec Guinness and Richard Basehart, their careers were very far south anyway so it didn't matter. This 1962 biopic starred the latter after his jaunt in Italy ruined his career in Hollywood. Unfortunately for him, it did nothing to buoy him up for a while. It was a forgettable movie with cheap production values, and although he tried his hardest, it's very difficult to get good reviews for a Hitler movie.
One interesting slant on this movie, if we're being kind here, is that the main focus is how he feels about women. We know he had a very complicated relationship with his mother, and as we also know, the relationship a boy has with his mother permeates through to adulthood and colors all relationships with women in the future. We see him time and again in the film having relationships with the women spiral out of control. He uses his power to lure them in, then explodes in rage when he thinks that power is all they're after. He's just incapable of being vulnerable in front of a woman and letting her decide if she likes the real him. Still, does anyone really want to watch this movie? Stick with Fourteen Hours for your Richard Basehart acting fix.
One interesting slant on this movie, if we're being kind here, is that the main focus is how he feels about women. We know he had a very complicated relationship with his mother, and as we also know, the relationship a boy has with his mother permeates through to adulthood and colors all relationships with women in the future. We see him time and again in the film having relationships with the women spiral out of control. He uses his power to lure them in, then explodes in rage when he thinks that power is all they're after. He's just incapable of being vulnerable in front of a woman and letting her decide if she likes the real him. Still, does anyone really want to watch this movie? Stick with Fourteen Hours for your Richard Basehart acting fix.
Art Imitating Life -- Wretchedly.
rmax30482316 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I have to draw a distinction between aesthetic properties and informative values when it comes to this movie.
On the one hand, looking at the movie from an educational point of view, it may be of genuine value. Surveys consistently find that Americans, especially young Americans, are a people without history. Focus groups following the release of "Pearl Harbor" ten years ago discovered that an alarming percentage of the intended audience thought that John F. Kennedy was president when the attack occurred. A student at a famous Midwestern university complimented Barbara Tuchman for her lecture of the origins of World War I because he'd "always wondered why the other was called World War II." A survey done in 2010 found that one in five Americans didn't know which country the United States had won its independence from. I could go on but won't. I'll conclude by saying that for far too many of us, this movie, which identifies the guy named Adolf Hitler and suggests the role he played in the story of the 20th century, is invaluable.
Now, as a polished piece of movie making, it's plain terrible. First, Richard Basehart is badly miscast. But then anyone would have been miscast in trying to play a figure from a patriotic cartoon in 1943. There is no "character arc." Hitler begins as a scowling, trigger-tempered character who berates everyone around him, lusts openly to dominate the world, and is beset by indistinct but definite Freudian problems that he steadfastly denies. The only time he smiles -- rather than smirks -- is at the end, when he is completely loony and is ordering divisions around on a map after he's been told they don't exist.
There really isn't much about his conduct of the war. It's more about his inability to love and his paranoia with regard to subordinates. Here's an example of what I mean.
He enters the office of his personal physician and asks gruffly, "So how is your patient today?" "You look pale. The fight with Hindenberg must have been strenuous. Are you still suffering from the headaches?" "I'm not HERE to talk about THAT!" Some of the material is highly conjectural. Hitler develops an affection for his niece, Geli, and when he fails in his attempt to make love to her, she threatens to let the world know that he is not a real man. This is a big mistake on Geli's part. It's also a big mistake on the part of Adolf. Anybody who is physically unable to get it on with the lovely, sixteen-year-old Cordula Trantow, who has scarcely lost her pubescent chubbiness, is in serious hormonal trouble.
But the movie denies Hitler any sign of humanity. (His beloved German shepherd, Blondi, never appears.) He has Geli murdered. He tolerates the presence of Eva Braun only because of her loyalty to him. It's not clear whether he ever gets it on with Eva Braun or not. I think, that if the mores of the time had permitted it, the movie would have given us a homosexual Hitler. As it is, his intolerance for smoking is ridiculed and it's mentioned that he eats nothing but vegetables -- not like a real man, who prefers his meat ripped from the quivering flank of the nearest antelope.
The movie is a trembling and insane wreck, rather like Himself after the assassination attempt. Yet I urge everyone under the age of forty to see it. It will help them to distinguish between Hitler and Charlie Chaplin, if they should ever hear of Charlie Chaplin.
On the one hand, looking at the movie from an educational point of view, it may be of genuine value. Surveys consistently find that Americans, especially young Americans, are a people without history. Focus groups following the release of "Pearl Harbor" ten years ago discovered that an alarming percentage of the intended audience thought that John F. Kennedy was president when the attack occurred. A student at a famous Midwestern university complimented Barbara Tuchman for her lecture of the origins of World War I because he'd "always wondered why the other was called World War II." A survey done in 2010 found that one in five Americans didn't know which country the United States had won its independence from. I could go on but won't. I'll conclude by saying that for far too many of us, this movie, which identifies the guy named Adolf Hitler and suggests the role he played in the story of the 20th century, is invaluable.
Now, as a polished piece of movie making, it's plain terrible. First, Richard Basehart is badly miscast. But then anyone would have been miscast in trying to play a figure from a patriotic cartoon in 1943. There is no "character arc." Hitler begins as a scowling, trigger-tempered character who berates everyone around him, lusts openly to dominate the world, and is beset by indistinct but definite Freudian problems that he steadfastly denies. The only time he smiles -- rather than smirks -- is at the end, when he is completely loony and is ordering divisions around on a map after he's been told they don't exist.
There really isn't much about his conduct of the war. It's more about his inability to love and his paranoia with regard to subordinates. Here's an example of what I mean.
He enters the office of his personal physician and asks gruffly, "So how is your patient today?" "You look pale. The fight with Hindenberg must have been strenuous. Are you still suffering from the headaches?" "I'm not HERE to talk about THAT!" Some of the material is highly conjectural. Hitler develops an affection for his niece, Geli, and when he fails in his attempt to make love to her, she threatens to let the world know that he is not a real man. This is a big mistake on Geli's part. It's also a big mistake on the part of Adolf. Anybody who is physically unable to get it on with the lovely, sixteen-year-old Cordula Trantow, who has scarcely lost her pubescent chubbiness, is in serious hormonal trouble.
But the movie denies Hitler any sign of humanity. (His beloved German shepherd, Blondi, never appears.) He has Geli murdered. He tolerates the presence of Eva Braun only because of her loyalty to him. It's not clear whether he ever gets it on with Eva Braun or not. I think, that if the mores of the time had permitted it, the movie would have given us a homosexual Hitler. As it is, his intolerance for smoking is ridiculed and it's mentioned that he eats nothing but vegetables -- not like a real man, who prefers his meat ripped from the quivering flank of the nearest antelope.
The movie is a trembling and insane wreck, rather like Himself after the assassination attempt. Yet I urge everyone under the age of forty to see it. It will help them to distinguish between Hitler and Charlie Chaplin, if they should ever hear of Charlie Chaplin.
If we shall lose this war I will take what's left of Germany with me!
sol-kay30 April 2010
In what's without a doubt the best interpretation of Nazi Dictator Adolph Hitler, until it was eclipsed by Bruno Ganze portrayal of Hitler in the 2004 WWII classic "Downfall", Richard Basehart gives the performance of his life as the psychotic and later suicidal German Fuhrer who at one time was the most powerful man on earth. That's until the roof and walls caved in on him and his so-called "Thousand Year Reich" that came apart in the spring of 1945.
The film "Hitler" goes mostly into Adolph Hitler's very personal life that had to do with his relationships with his teen-age niece Gila Raubal, Curdula Trantow, and later his personal photographer's young assistant Eva Bran, Maria Emo. The two women who most reminded Hitler of his late mother Klara Hitler who died of cancer when he was still a teenager back in the winter of 1907. The movie brings out that Hitler had a very strong attachment to his mother that kept him from having any kind of serious relationship with women in his future years as both an adult as well as German Dictator.
The film "Hitler" starts out with the 1923 failed Beer Hall Putch in Munich that turned out to be a godsend for Hitler who besides having some two dozen of his fellow Nazis killed by the local police was himself captured tried and convicted of high treason and sent to Lansberg Prison where he ended up serving only a year behind bars! If anyone else would have tried to do the same thing when Hitler was in power he or she wouldn't have gotten off so easily. It was while in Lansberg Prison that Hitler wrote what was to be the Bible of the Nazi Party "Mein Kampf". In fact "Mein Kampf" was a blueprint for Hitler's future plans when he took control of Germany! But no one took it seriously until it was too late which eventually lead to WWII and the loss of over 50 million lives!
Between Hitler's steamy and odd-ball affairs with Gila Raubal and Eva Braun we also see his climb to the leadership of he German Nation in becoming it's ultimate and all powerful leader or Fuhrer but at the price of hundreds if not thousands of fellow Germans. Many like his good friend and WWI army buddy the commander of Hitler's dreaded Brown Shirts the SA Ernst Rohm, Barry Kroeger. It was Rohm's misfortune to stand in the way of the German General Staff who felt him to be a threat to their power with his two million strong army of Brown Shirts. It was the German Army General Saff that got Hitler, who at the time was only the German Chancellor, to do Captain Rohm in together with his top lieutenants on "The Night of the Long Knives", June 30-July 1,1934, in order to gain their support. With the German Army now solidly behind him Hitler now had the means to accomplish his goal of conquering the entire world or end up dead, which he did, doing it!
We get to see Hitler go from almost conquering all of Europe only to end up some 100 feet under the streets of Berlin in his reinforced steel and concrete bunker with only a few loyal Nazis like Propaganda Minster Joseph Goebbles, Martin Kosleck, and soon to be wife-"The Bride of Adolph Hitler"-Eva Braun at his side. With death staring him in the face Hitler rewards Eva Braun in becoming his wife as the two end their lives, with bullet and cyanide capsule, as their world, the Third Reich, goes up in flames together along with them. The film ends abruptly without the usual "The End" or closing credits implying that Adolph Hitler, and his many crimes, are somehow still with us.
Remarkable performance by Richard Basehart as the Nazi Dictator Adolph Hitler that has been almost forgotten over the years by the movie going public with the film almost never being broadcast on TV or available on VSH tapes or DVD disks. Now with the film being shown on TCM on what turned out to be the 65th anniversary of Hitler's death people will finally be able to see just what a buried gem it was all these some 40 years that it was kept from the public and laid on the shelf collecting dust.
P.S Despite his notorious and racist reputation especially in his dislike of those not being like himself, of the white Aryan race, Adolph Hitler's autobiography "Mein Kampf", which has been banned in both Germany and his native Austria, has become one of the biggest best sellers in Third World country's like India China, where its only available for research purposes only, as well as the Muslim World! In fact even here in the West, Europe and the USA, more books and movies have been published and made about Adolph Hitler then those of his WWII adversaries British Empire Prime Minster Winston Churchill US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Soviet Primer Joseph Stalin combined!
The film "Hitler" goes mostly into Adolph Hitler's very personal life that had to do with his relationships with his teen-age niece Gila Raubal, Curdula Trantow, and later his personal photographer's young assistant Eva Bran, Maria Emo. The two women who most reminded Hitler of his late mother Klara Hitler who died of cancer when he was still a teenager back in the winter of 1907. The movie brings out that Hitler had a very strong attachment to his mother that kept him from having any kind of serious relationship with women in his future years as both an adult as well as German Dictator.
The film "Hitler" starts out with the 1923 failed Beer Hall Putch in Munich that turned out to be a godsend for Hitler who besides having some two dozen of his fellow Nazis killed by the local police was himself captured tried and convicted of high treason and sent to Lansberg Prison where he ended up serving only a year behind bars! If anyone else would have tried to do the same thing when Hitler was in power he or she wouldn't have gotten off so easily. It was while in Lansberg Prison that Hitler wrote what was to be the Bible of the Nazi Party "Mein Kampf". In fact "Mein Kampf" was a blueprint for Hitler's future plans when he took control of Germany! But no one took it seriously until it was too late which eventually lead to WWII and the loss of over 50 million lives!
Between Hitler's steamy and odd-ball affairs with Gila Raubal and Eva Braun we also see his climb to the leadership of he German Nation in becoming it's ultimate and all powerful leader or Fuhrer but at the price of hundreds if not thousands of fellow Germans. Many like his good friend and WWI army buddy the commander of Hitler's dreaded Brown Shirts the SA Ernst Rohm, Barry Kroeger. It was Rohm's misfortune to stand in the way of the German General Staff who felt him to be a threat to their power with his two million strong army of Brown Shirts. It was the German Army General Saff that got Hitler, who at the time was only the German Chancellor, to do Captain Rohm in together with his top lieutenants on "The Night of the Long Knives", June 30-July 1,1934, in order to gain their support. With the German Army now solidly behind him Hitler now had the means to accomplish his goal of conquering the entire world or end up dead, which he did, doing it!
We get to see Hitler go from almost conquering all of Europe only to end up some 100 feet under the streets of Berlin in his reinforced steel and concrete bunker with only a few loyal Nazis like Propaganda Minster Joseph Goebbles, Martin Kosleck, and soon to be wife-"The Bride of Adolph Hitler"-Eva Braun at his side. With death staring him in the face Hitler rewards Eva Braun in becoming his wife as the two end their lives, with bullet and cyanide capsule, as their world, the Third Reich, goes up in flames together along with them. The film ends abruptly without the usual "The End" or closing credits implying that Adolph Hitler, and his many crimes, are somehow still with us.
Remarkable performance by Richard Basehart as the Nazi Dictator Adolph Hitler that has been almost forgotten over the years by the movie going public with the film almost never being broadcast on TV or available on VSH tapes or DVD disks. Now with the film being shown on TCM on what turned out to be the 65th anniversary of Hitler's death people will finally be able to see just what a buried gem it was all these some 40 years that it was kept from the public and laid on the shelf collecting dust.
P.S Despite his notorious and racist reputation especially in his dislike of those not being like himself, of the white Aryan race, Adolph Hitler's autobiography "Mein Kampf", which has been banned in both Germany and his native Austria, has become one of the biggest best sellers in Third World country's like India China, where its only available for research purposes only, as well as the Muslim World! In fact even here in the West, Europe and the USA, more books and movies have been published and made about Adolph Hitler then those of his WWII adversaries British Empire Prime Minster Winston Churchill US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Soviet Primer Joseph Stalin combined!
Garbage
tbvanslyke17 July 2011
Technically atrocious and hysterically inaccurate in almost all ways. Events maddeningly out of order... characters come and go almost randomly. Not a single character plays out realistically... from Basehart's histrionics to the actress who plays Eva Braun with strange stoicism which was not her primary characteristic. Even Martin Kosleck -- an otherwise talented actor -- plays Goebbles strangely and with an odd sense of sympathy, which was assuredly not a trait he had.
It's not as if we don't know what occurred, but apparently the writer didn't have a clue.
Inexcusable garbage, created by a hack director and the remnants of Monogram Studios in the guise of Allied Artists, though released through Warner Bros.
It's not as if we don't know what occurred, but apparently the writer didn't have a clue.
Inexcusable garbage, created by a hack director and the remnants of Monogram Studios in the guise of Allied Artists, though released through Warner Bros.
Terrific film of Hitler
lorenzoestevez16 February 2018
A little bit silly
scbowen-171-21055827 September 2011
I was very excited to see the film being a History Major in college and somewhat of a World War 2 buff , but I found the movie to be slow and silly. Eva Braun was nothing like the portrayal of her done in this film. She was a silly, and light hearted girl who laughed a lot. This movie portrays Hitler as a sexually frustrated weirdo who is obsessed with his mother, when those who lived around Hitler swear that he had a healthy sexual relationship with Braun. The acting was good, but the script was just not even close to accurate. Also, Stauffenburg was not hanged..he was shot. The film takes to many liberties with the historical record in my opinion.
Entertaining - - Richard Basehart excels as Adolf Hitler
Akzidenz_Grotesk5 April 2008
The most terrible dictator of the 20th century is portrayed convincingly by the star Richard Basehart. The ruthless hate and mania of Hitler knew no bounds and this film portrays Hitler unsympathetically at different stages of his ascent to power in Germany. There is a perverse fascination to see Basehart's Hitler suffer in his personal life.
Though the characters portrayed were real, this is a drama and not a documentary. If you're looking for a comprehensive study of Hitler's life, many books at the library are available. Watch this film for a straightforward look at Hitler's psychotic character as it may have manifested itself to those closest to him.
This movie offers an "inside view" of Hitler's relationships with the women closest to him, Geli Raubal and Eva Braun. We also see the possibility that a pivotal and controversial event in the Nazi's rise to power--the burning of the Reichstag--was in all probability an arson committed by the Nazis themselves.
The martial soundtrack by Hans J. Salter is an added bonus.
Though the characters portrayed were real, this is a drama and not a documentary. If you're looking for a comprehensive study of Hitler's life, many books at the library are available. Watch this film for a straightforward look at Hitler's psychotic character as it may have manifested itself to those closest to him.
This movie offers an "inside view" of Hitler's relationships with the women closest to him, Geli Raubal and Eva Braun. We also see the possibility that a pivotal and controversial event in the Nazi's rise to power--the burning of the Reichstag--was in all probability an arson committed by the Nazis themselves.
The martial soundtrack by Hans J. Salter is an added bonus.
An awful film ...
lagwmguy17 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This film is an extremely poor saga of Hitler. If it was portrayed as a fictionalization of him then I would provide a higher rating albeit marginally so. Hitler is much more complex character than the film, and possibly any film, can provide. It's embarrassing to actually watch this awful film given the historical inaccuracies. I understand the need to take liberties for sake of piecing a film together and making the characters more believable. However, those who have studied the lives of Hitler and his closest political/economic/social/military advisers, find this film completely avoidable.
The film "Downfall" (2004) is much more historically accurate and captures the essential core of Hitler as the man he was. I highly recommend Downfall knowing it only shows the last few days of Hitler and his Third Reich.
The film "Downfall" (2004) is much more historically accurate and captures the essential core of Hitler as the man he was. I highly recommend Downfall knowing it only shows the last few days of Hitler and his Third Reich.
A baseless caricature presented as history
msedlav25 September 2011
This movie suffers to a greater extent than "average" from the common weakness of Hitler movies. The caricature that it presents of the man is one of a completely unlikable, overbearing and deranged individual. This depiction of the man is utterly unsatisfactory in its failure to offer even a clue as to how such a purportedly totally unsympathetic character could mesmerize and captivate millions by the shear power of his personality. Alec Guinness, despite a camp movie script, was able to give us glimpses of the charismatic side of the Hitler persona in "Hitler: The Last Ten Days;" not so Richard Basehart in this movie. Much more revealing and insightful is the portrayal of the man in the movie "Downfall," although, tellingly, it has received much criticism for "humanizing" Hitler.
Womanizer Adolf?
searchanddestroy-125 August 2023
The private life of Adolf Hitler as you have never seen before on a screen, in a movie. So far in 1962.... The intention is fairly interesting, but the result is lame, with many inaccuracies. So, for an historian, I won't recommend it at all. Only destined to movie buffs more interested in Stuart Heisler's movies - this one being his last - than in Adolf Hitler's private life. Richard Basehart is not Bruno Ganz in THE FALL (2005). But, I repeat, you can watch it if you have nothing else to do, by curiosity, for not do die as an idiot. However if you are a WW2 expert, avoid this feature, it could disappoint you.
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