Les SS frappent la nuit

Afterwards I'd watched this picture, on bonus material the Italian actor Mario Adorf spoke about his recollections concerning the productions that reveals some possible disagreement over the veracity of the case occurred on WWII during the Nazi period, starting this point almost majority of the facts really happened, aside some sequence added under the pretext of the dramatization without stir in the real events.

Then the plot took place at Germany in 1944 when the war is closing on behalf of the allied, when a Germany serial killer called Bruno Ludke (Adorf) has been committed many murders on different spots at country, when a former army officer took over as police commissioner Axel Kersten (Claus Holm) delves into the odd case suspecting that the man caught in crime scene couldn't commit a murder due he didn't fits as enough strong hands an unusual throttling applied by the real killer.

When he finally finds Bruno and arresting him to able to extract further strongest elements to ascertaining the truth, during the Bruno's stateman the whole staff of the local police they reach a bottom line that the killer murdered around 80 victims, in the meantime a Gestapo officer following the case carefully under other pretext, in a nutshell hush it up due the possible damage to Nazi party on so-called new Germany that now is in the hands of the Fuher.

The picture has many qualities enforced and approached by the esteemed director Robert Siodmak, also the Noir proposition, fine photograph and embellished by a sharpy dialogue between the Gestapo officer and the Commissaire Axel over the Arian progeny as pure German race, however paradoxically Bruno Ludke belong from this ethnic group!!

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First watch: 2022 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.5.

Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam is directed by Robert Siodmak and written by Will Berthold (article) and Werner Jörg Lüddecke. It stars Claus Holm, Annemarie Düringer, Mario Adorf, Hannes Messemer, Carl Lange and Werner Peters. Music is by Siegfried Franz and cinematography by Georg Krause.

A serial killer is terrorising Hamburg, Germany, during World War II. When the local police struggle to catch him, the Gestapo are brought in to crack the case.

The basis for the story is that of real life serial killer Bruno Lüdke, here played by Adorf. Yet this is only a side-bar to the actuality of Siodmak's film, for it's a clinical deconstruction of Nazi Germany at the time, a look at the final throes of that regime. It shows how the corrupt powers would do anything to not make their government look bad, with orders even coming from Adolf himself! It's all very fascinating and potent, and well performed. There's some nice visual touches via the night sequences, though you reasonably expect to have more from Siodmak, a fine purveyor of expressionism and noir chiaroscuro. There's some contrivances and a couple of badly staged action sequences, but this remains a tough political drama with mystery shadings. 8/10

Following an 11-year Hollywood stint, during which he mainly excelled in film noirs, German director Siodmak returned to his native country – where his promising initial career had previously been cut short by the rise of Nazism. Arguably the best-known of his latter-day efforts, the film under review deals in part with this particular 20th Century scourge and was distinguished by its receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film; prior to this, Siodmak had only been personally short-listed in a Best Direction nod for the seminal noir THE KILLERS (1946).

Anyway, while this revolved around a definitely intriguing premise – in the midst of WWII, a chase is on by the Police and Secret Service for a serial killer of women – I could not help feel somewhat let down by the end result. Siodmak's apprenticeship at the tail-end of the German Expressionist movement serves him in good stead with respect to the film's shadowy visuals; that said, a social commentary was clearly intended a' la Fritz Lang's M (1931; this greatest of all serial killer films, also emanating from Germany, is the obvious model here) – but, apart from its occasional jabs at the Third Reich, the impact is curiously muted. As with Lang's masterpiece, the murderer's identity is immediately revealed to us (he is well played by future "Euro-Cult" regular Mario Adorf) – his activities being also similarly counterpointed by the authorities' attempts to capture him.

The film, in fact, falters where Lang's found its greatest inspiration: there is no diatribe here by the culprit as to his helplessness in committing these heinous acts against others who did wrong out of choice. Rather, Adorf plays up his character's mental deficiency in his defense, and – disappointingly – no relation is really made between an individual (i.e. minor) crime spree and the genocide being perpetrated in the name of racial superiority by the German people! Indeed, the Nazis initially take this opportunity to target even imperfect Aryan specimen – but after the crippled policeman on the case 'raises a stink' (his thoroughness is demonstrated by the tearing up of newly-installed wallpaper at an apartment in order to verify an old journal's reportage of the murders) when a philandering German official accused of slaying one of Adorf's victims is sentenced to death, the Third Reich retracts the whole incident (though the killer is still executed) and the cop transferred to the war front!

While THE DEVIL STRIKES AT NIGHT is relentlessly grim and talky, it has its fair share of interesting sequences and performances: the early (and bafflingly) solitary murder sequence during an air raid; Adorf offering an incriminating handbag to his current crush and being reluctantly convinced to hand it over to the local authorities; the defiant Adorf proudly and bemusedly leading a posse of investigators to the spot in the country where he buried one of the 55 (or 80, depending on which source to believe) bodies he disposed of; the crippled investigator calling on the SS officer (Hannes Messemer) who commissioned him during a debauched party at his mansion and the confrontation which ensues; the train station finale in which the now-enlisted investigator denies the very existence of the Mario Adorf character to the above-mentioned girl the latter fancied, etc. Ultimately, the film would make a fine companion piece to Anatole Litvak's star-studded, big-budget Hollywood epic THE NIGHT OF THE GENERALS (1967) which equally deals with an outbreak of serial killings during WWII.

This Classic film noire combines two main stories: The hunt for a serial killer and the ideologically poisoned mindset of card-carrying Nazis during the end of WWII. For those Germans who were never enthusiastic followers of the extreme nationalist ideas enveloping Germany, the final days of WWII often meant to just "lay low and let it all run past you". But what if the innocent are wrongly condemned to be executed for murder when their innocence becomes unquestioned? Who would defend such a victim of injustice in the face of certain reprisal?

This film introduces Mario Adorf (who deservedly won the award for best newcomer) as Bruno, a dim-witted laborer who wants nothing more than to eat well and drink hard, but seems to be drawn to young women whom he then strangles. When a brilliant detective puzzles together evidence from outstanding murder cases, leading to Bruno, he instantly gains the respect and confidence of the man who turns out to be responsible for some 80 murders. To see the naive Bruno freely confess and cheerfully reenact one of the killings shows how an insane or mentally deficient mind is incapable of grasping the gravity of taking a human life. Now are we to compare Bruno to the countless Nazis who convinced themselves that they were "just following orders" when they participated in genocide? This film is one of many powerful cinematic indictments against the Nazi Regime, and an appeal to the human conscience not ever to idly look on as fellow human beings are wrongly accused, convicted and even murdered by a corrupt and unfair justice system.

Nominee for Best Foreign Film Oscar, which went to Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria" that year. The latter will always be my favorite foreign film, however "Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam" is a formidable contender for the Oscar! Highly recommended!

There's nothing as intense and disturbing as German-produced serial killer films, especially when they are inspired by raw, macabre factual cases, like "M" (Peter Kürten), "The Tenderness of Wolves" (Fritz Haarmann) and "Angst" (Werner Kniesek). Okay, admittedly, that last one is 100% Austrian, but also and truly one of the most harrowingly realistic thrillers ever made. "The Devil Strikes at Night" is another masterpiece that fits into this category, as it's based on serial murderer Bruno Lüdke and very accurately depicts the period and the circumstances of his arrest in Berlin during the summer of 1944. Mario Adorf, still in one of the earliest roles of his rich career, impressively portrays the strong and potent but mentally disabled Lüdke. He breaks through the cork of a wine bottle with the tip of one finger, but he also occasionally feels the incontrollable urge to strangle young women, like the Hamburg waitress Lucy Hansen. Her lover, Willi Keun, is wrongfully arrested for the murder and sentenced to death, but you don't really care since he's a Nazi commander and a sleazy pervert. Commissioner Axel Kersten, however, does believe in justice and connects the murder to several ones that took place before the war. He unmasks Lüdke, but this isn't good news for SS-Gruppenfuhrer Rossdorf because he doesn't like the idea of a handicapped Aryan being able to remain below the radar in their superior Third Reich. Master director Robert Siodmak ("The Spiral Staircase") returns to Germany to portray his native country how it really was during World War II: corrupt, ugly, hypocrite and completely devoid of honest and honorable men! It's not a very exciting or action-packed thriller, but it's hugely atmospheric, depressing and wonderfully shot by Georg Krause. My inner horror fanatic is somewhat disappointed that a killer suspected of 51 murders is only seen strangling one victim, but Siodmak opted to put all his energy into the drawing of Lüdke as an atypical serial murderer and the slow but certain extirpation of Nazism.