Le Général du diable

"The devil's general" is about a war hero from the First World War who is still in the army when the Second World War breaks out, but who is secretly opposed to the Nazi's. Of course this general has to operate very carefully in order not to get unmasked. The film portrays the actions of this general, sometimes not without humour.

Helmut Käutner was one of the few post war German directors who remained in Germany during the Nazi regime but managed not to compromise himself by participating in Nazi propaganda. In fact his only respected colleague was Wolfgang Staudte. For years these two directors were the only two making quality cinema in Germany.

Helmut Käunter is mainly known for "Unter den Brucken" (1946), in the style of "L'Atalante" (1934, Jean Vigo).

The opening scene of "The devil's general" reminded me vaguely of "The damned" (1969, Luchino Visconti). There is a party of high ranked Nazi's. On the surface evrything is cheerful, but below there is a lot of mistrust and complot thinking.

After the opening scene the film remains well done but it does not equal the quality of "The damned". For this "The devil's general" lacks the perversity and cynicism that makes "The damned"such a great movie.

This is a tranquil but disturbing film about a disputatious general trying to get along with the Nazi system. And even though the film does not live on action but on good dialogues, its appeal is quite different to that of the theatrical play. The movie is a classic.

A movie that I saw for the first time decades ago and numerous times since! Every time I watch it, I discover new facets in Harras'personality. On one hand he is the tough guy, the party animal, the womanizer; however, he shows his softer, almost romantic side when he meets Diddo Geiss. I think that the movie could be a wonderful teaching tool, because it illustrates how "non-political", even rebellious Germans were drawn into the Nazi ideology and paid the ultimate price! Udo Jürgens and Marianne Koch were fabulous together! I would recommend this film for upper level German classes in the US. It is a good addition to "Die weisse Rose" or "Sophie Scholl".

The epic of Goethe's "Faust" replayed in real life (Ernst Udet, Generalluftzeugmeister, was the source for Zuckmayer's General Harras), and in a play by Carl Zuckmayer. Displays excellently how Germans were suckered into following the modern day "Pied Piper from Austria": Adolf Hitler; and how you have to pay the piper if you follow him. "Denn wer auf Erden des Teufels General gewesen ist und ihm die Bahn gebombt hat, der muss ihm auch in der Hoelle Quartier machen!" - "For whoever was the Devil's General on this Earth, and who bombed the path for him, also has to be his quartermaster in hell!"

German audiences in the 1930's thrilled to see the astonishing aerial acrobatics of Ernst Udet in the mountain films of Arnold Fanck. The highest-ranking air ace to survive WWI, he was to become Colonel-General of the Luftwaffe but the unbearable pressures of the job, his sense of being betrayed by Goering and his despair at Hitler's invasion of Russia led to his taking his own life.

It is generally accepted that the character of General Harras in Carl Zuckmayer's hugely successful post war play is loosely based on Udets and is a fictionalised account of his final days.

The title role in this excellent film adaptation made an international star of the charismatic Curd Juergens and deservedly won him a Best Actor award at Cannes. It is undeniably his finest role and arguably his best performance.

The cast is uniformly excellent and the characters well drawn, not least Eva-Ingerborg-Scholz as the loathsome Putzchen and Viktor de Kowa as rabid Nazi Schmidt-Lausen. The career of de Kowa, despite his being on Goebbel's 'Important Artists exempt list' and his membership of the Nazi party, continued unabated after the war and his marvellously menacing portrayal is riveting. Marianne Koch plays Harras' young love and their mutual attraction is convincing despite the age gap.

This piece cannot but betray its theatrical roots but under Helmut Kautner's customarily expert direction and with Klaus Dudenhofer's editing it never drags and builds to a stupendous climax.

The intelligent and artistic Helmut Kautner not only navigated the shark infested waters of the Third Reich but also gave us one of its greatest films, 'Romanze in Moll' and managed to rise above the crass commercialism of 1950's German cinema.