The Hitler Gang

With its cast of uncanny lookalikes, The Hitler Gang is a truly fascinating watch, chronicling the rise of one of history's most evil men and all done with a surprising amount of polish. It's honest in its effort to render an accurate account of the Nazis, with particular attention being paid to capturing the look of their uniforms, architecture and policies but suffers somewhat from an oversimplification of history, appearing more of a cliff notes version of Hitler's life. The film doesn't portray Hitler as crazy or as a raving lunatic; instead, he is shown as being less downright evil than a cynical, manipulative and ruthless politician. For instance, the persecution of the Jews is shown to be not a product of his fanaticism but a political calculation to search for a scapegoat for Germany's defeat in WWI. The film consciously tries to mirror the gangster noirs popular in its era, instead of conspiring to rub off other gangsters, Hitler conspires to do away with rival politicians; instead of fighting over the liquor market, they fight over controlling Germany. The film also doesn't have an ending as such, as it was made before the end of the war, so it concludes with some patriotic propaganda as to how he must and will be stopped. Regardless, The Hitler Gang is one of the more interesting and messed-up biopics you'll ever see.

This film purports to dramatize Hitler's rise to power from the end of WWI to his bringing the world into WWII. While most of the facts are true, because this is a propaganda film it occasionally stretches the truth or gives a few outright lies--though not that many. So, when you watch it, don't expect all of it is gospel truth but a well made film intended to make Hitler look as awful as possible--which isn't really that difficult! I know quite a bit about Hitler, as a history teacher and because I took classes on him and read about him extensively while in college. A very disturbed but fascinating guy, that's for sure! And the film does a decent job in portraying him.

Bobby Watson plays Hitler--as he'd done in other films of the time. He bore a very close resemblance to Hitler. While this is not really a good thing, it kept him busy during WWII making such propaganda comedy films as "Nazty Nuisance" and "The Devil With Hitler". Here, however, he plays the Nazi leader in a non-comedic role. In total, Watson played Hitler in 9 films! In addition, the actors they chose to play such notable Nazis as Hess and Röhm looked remarkably similar to their real life counterparts--showing the studio actually took some time with this film to get the look right. So, despite a relatively low budget, the studio took this project very seriously.

For the most part, the film does follow the career of Hitler. The most sensational part of the movie, his relationship with his niece, Geli, was actually probably even sicker than the film portrays. I don't think audiences of the day wanted a THOROUGH examination of his life with her--some of the allegations are too nasty to list on IMDb (they probably would not allow it). The film implied that Hitler killed her, but it's more likely his very bizarre sexual demands and obsessive demand for her attentions led to her suicide.

The biggest inaccuracy in the film was the constant portrayal of Hitler as an abject coward or a man easily manipulated by his staff. Now I am NOT an apologist for him--he was evil personified. But, unfortunately, he was not a coward. For example, despite the film showing him with hysterical blindness during WWI (a story that is inconsistent with him as a soldier), Hitler LOVED WWI and loved danger--often volunteering for insanely difficult missions. He really was gassed during the war, got blown up another time and received two Iron Crosses--something practically unheard of for someone who was not an officer. In war, he was in his element and thrived. Frankly, this true picture is a worse image--a war-loving monster instead of the abject coward and blow-hard they showed him to be in the movie. And, a man who was all too aware of the evils his henchmen did! Overall, a very good bio of Hitler. Well constructed and acted--and fascinating throughout.

I love this film - the ganster style is hilarious - it is brilliant - not filmnoir - but has genius moments of camera work and wayyy over the top sinister acting - well worth watching...

Many years ago, (early 1960s), I caught part of this on late night TV. I remember part of the announcer's intro, because when my dad walked in and asked what was on, I said,'some gangster movie', only recalling the word, gang. Some years later I realized that this was a somewhat accurate, though brief, look at Hitler's rise to power. Two scenes stick in my mind. Near the beginning, there is one where AH is a soldier in WWI with a handlebar mustache. He goes up to a mirror and cuts off the ends, creating the infamous 'toothbrush' look. Later during his ascent, he walks into a beer hall with his followers, pulls a pistol out of his overcoat pocket, and fires a few shots into the air. The 'beer hall putsch' ? Early forties, black and white. The actor REALLY had Hitler down pat.

One thing you'll notice in this movie straight away - the actors all look uncannily like their real-life counterparts. However, even with look-alike actors, a movie can fall down in terms of script and acting, but not this one. Considering this movie was made in the 1940s, and in the middle of WW2 no less, the acting and direction are great, the story is not overly propagandized, and we get possibly the best portrayal of Hitler on screen until this year's 'Downfall' (Der Untergang).

Another of those movies which deserve to be classics, but which are rotting in a film vault somewhere. It is a crime that this isn't available anywhere on DVD.