Hitler

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.

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!

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.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Hitler and all things Nazi. TV was exploding with war movies and "historical drama" especially during late night Tv programming. I first saw Hitler on the "Late show" when older movies were shown. As a kid, I completely missed the plot of the movie being about Hitler's sexual hang-ups. For instance his devotion to his dead mother(Which never left him) Sado-sexual desires, controlling all aspects of a woman's life. Which led to the still unsolved case of Geli Ruebal's suicide (The movie gives an obviously fictional account of Geli being murdered by Emil Maurice and Himmler) Hitler, supposedly could only be aroused by being humiliated and urinated on by a partner.(According to Dr. Walter C. Langer's psychological assessment of Hitler published under the title "The Mind of Adolf Hitler) Homosexuality is alluded to (this was 1962) by Roehm's suttle attraction to an SA trooper. In one scene that could be viewed as homoerotic, a group shirtless, muscular men are seen being hanged on the gallow. Roehm alludes to a homosexual relationship with Hitler, although couched in vague terms.. Maybe not 100% accurate, (What movie really is) I think this movie deserves a view.

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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.