El hombre de dos caras

great story, excellent acting. also, i had the joy of seeing luther adler do tevya in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF maybe 25 years after seeing THE MAGIC FACE.

this is one of those movies that stay with you forever...i only wish i could rent it now, to show it to a few friends, and of course see it again.

the music was also interesting. i can still remember the melody when the quick change actors go from one costume to another.

the introduction by newsman shirer at the top of the movie was also a nice touch, and gave a documentary type of feel to the black and white movie.

adler was stunning as Hitler. the resemblance was uncanny.

We are given an introduction that tells us we are about to see a film that may or may not be true. It's not true. So, just clearing that up from the start. There are so many inaccuracies in the set-up and in the final days of Hitler in the bunker. Who on earth is this Patricia Knight (Vera) character?! Anyway, what we get is a film that is ok to watch as we are given another theory as to what really happened to Hitler. It is, of course, complete nonsense.

I've never understood the whole butler thing. Why would anyone want to spend their life voluntarily in the servitude of somebody else!! Especially a member of the male species, who are innately programmed to assert dominance not encompass submissiveness. Unless they fancied them. In this film, Hitler's original valet Manfred Inger (Wagner) proves this homosexual theory as he looks adoringly at Hitler in one particular scene. It is an interesting point to note that nobody else has mentioned but everyone can see.

Check out the cast list on this film - there is someone called Rolf Wanka! Ha ha.

Luther Adler is a Viennese actor who imitates the leaders of the day: Mussolini, Hitler, Churchill, he does them all and the audiences roar. Then comes Anschluss and his wife, Patricia Knight walks out on him for, eventually, Hitler. So Adler learns to be a valet, becomes Hitler's valet and replaces him. Unfortunately, he can't just destroy the Third Reich, so he adopts a strategy of making bad decisions: declaring war on Russia instead of invading England and mopping up that front first; delaying the response to the Normandy landing and so forth, up to the Bunker and his disappearance. Plus there's William L. Shirer, speaking before and after about how this story was told to him and he sort of believes it.

I respected Shirer's writing until today. I hope they paid him a lot of money for spouting this nonsense, which is suitable fare for a PRC programmer nine years earlier. To see Frank Tuttle listed as director is astonishing. He had spent many years as a house director for Goldwyn and Paramount, making excellent thrillers. Now, however, he was working for Columbia, so the support network was not something he could manage. Good actors, wasted!

The worst part of it is this is largely the plot of Chaplin's THE GREAT DICTATOR, released a dozen years earlier, in which a Jewish barber takes the place of Hitler. Aren't you supposed to make the melodrama first and the burlesque after?

The first time I saw this movie was in 1952, I then forgot about it for a number of years, then I began to think of the story but I had forgotten the title and the actors.

For 40 odd years I tried in vain to find the name of movie. Several years ago I finally found the title name on IMDb, I was even able to buy a copy of the film.

This is one of those films that make you wonder if it really happened or not.

Enjoy the movie,

Hal

I saw this movie in 1951 in a theater in Brooklyn, NY with my grandmother for sure and maybe my mother. I was young, only seven years old.For some reason its always stuck in my mind. I remember Luther Adler and that it was in black and white. Something I can't pinpoint exactly was fascinating about it. Possibly it was Adler's performance, the film seemed grim and dark like the subject of World War Two. I remember him ranting and raving, like Hitler would have. Never knew Adler was related to Stella Adler the acting teacher. If it was available, I'd buy it in a minute. I wish it was. Maybe if enough of us comment on it, they would re-release it in VHS or some other form. Luther Adler was an excellent actor. I remember him as the Israeli Prime Minister in CAST A GIANT SHADOW. I also remember him in DOA with Edmond O'Brien as the bad guy,but can't remember him in DESERT FOX with James Mason, another cinema giant.