Hitler: Dead or Alive

Aesthetically speaking, this is not a good film in the least. The plot is stupid, the dialog is beyond just stupid and the film can only be enjoyed as a silly piece of kitsch. However, I liked it because it represents the extreme in how bad an American propaganda film can be. Like "First Yank in Tokyo", any attempt to make a believable story went out the window with this one! The film stars some actors who are usually there for support--Ward Bond, Paul Fix and Warren Hymer. While I liked them as colorful characters in films, without a strong and more competent leading man, the film is a bit doomed at the onset. The three play gangsters who lead a Three Stooges-like covert mission to kill Hitler. And, as for Hitler and his henchmen, they are about as smart as you'd expect from a Stooges' film! It's all very dopey and silly but I could also see someone today watching it precisely because it's so bad--so over the top.

This film has nothing going for it other than goofiness. It is so weird and wacky that it makes for a wonderfully strange evening of movie watching--and it's easy to, as the film is in the public domain and can be downloaded for free.

Yes, the movie "Hitler, Dead or Alive",was sub-par for that time period's genre, but I believe that the basic theme could be currently remade, with success! Using an all-star cast & more expensive sets, this "B" movie plot could capture a new audience, since World War II movies have become in fashion again, in recent years! I also think a film, like the "Dirty Dozen" was also influenced by it!

If you look at numerous 'war' films, actually made during WW II, they were done quickly & cheaply, to capitalize on the times.

Even the great "Casablanca", made in 1943, was done mostly on back-lots & to take advantage of the recent 'action' there, so please look at "Hitler, Dead or Alive" through the eyes of war audiences, who had no television & were anxious to see anything about world events!

Three gangsters head for Nazi Germany to capture Adolph Hitler and claim a big monetary reward. With a lot of Fuherer imposter's, how would they find the "real" Hitler: Simple, he had a beer stein cut on his upper lip delivered during the famous Munich Beer Hall Putsch, and grew his trademark mustache to cover it up. All the boys had to do was keep shaving "Hitlers" until they found the real one with the scar. And how did they learn to speak German??? Simple: (in Ward Bond's words) "...from driving a beer truck in Milwaukee..." To everyone who tells me that "Plan 9 From Outer Space" was the worst film ever made, I simply reply: "You haven't seen 'Hitler: Dead or Alive." Watch it for laughs!

The only reason I wanted to see this World War Two propaganda film was the presence of Ward Bond in a leading role which he handled very well & was completely convincing & believable. He had an enormous screen presence & personality & he could've easily became a leading actor if he really wanted to but he was content in small & distinguished supporting roles. He was quite versatile & is often associated with John Wayne in the John Ford directed films. Ward Bond was literally in just about every film to name a few like "It Happened One Night" (1934) he was an extra in "G-Men" (1935) "Night Key" with Boris Karloff (1937), "Dead End" (1937), "Prison Break" with Barton Maclane (1938), "Gone With The Wind" (1939) he was an extra in "Son Of Frankenstein" (1939), "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946), "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" with James Cagney (1950) etc. He was in hundred's of movies.

He often played cops & gangsters & I thought he did a good job in the leading role of the patriotic gangster. The cast is solid with established actors like Paul Fix & Warren Hymer who often played stupid gangsters. Sure the plot is far fetched but it was 1942 & WW2 was a very popular war inspiring national patriotism. The film was obviously a wartime moral booster while at the same time trying to sustain & save a dying genre: the gangster film & in 1942 what better way to sell a gangster movie than to turn the gangsters into patriotic American hero's on an improbable mission to knock off Adolf Hitler. It may be a little campy today but in it's day this movie was probably taken seriously by 1942 audiences. Think about it, the film was obviously intended to be serious & it's not a bad watch & I would watch it again & it's by far superior to the Ed Wood films.

There is really no comparison & there is a lot worse movies out there than this. Don't forget Ed Wood was voted the worst director of all time, an honor & title he fittingly deserves. It doesn't get any worse than Ed Wood not even an Elvis Presley movie.

Not quite as awful as some would make it out - but definitely in the 'so bad it's funny' category. In fact, it could have been worse - I smiled a lot but I never laughed out loud as I do with Ed Wood films.

There's nothing credible about the story whatsoever - no, don't even try. At one point Hitler gets his mustache shaved off, and people who have known him for years can no longer recognize him! Theshoddy sets and preposterous plot devices have been remarked by other reviewers, why belabor such points. And Ward Bond's performance isn't simply "over the top," it's shot out to the stratosphere. There are some funny lines, and the German accents are Monty-Pythonesque caricatures of human speech. The first half drags a bit, but the second half moves along at a fair clip.

One other piece of plotting non-sequitor: The narrator of the story makes out that he can report a dead hero's last words - unfortunately, nobody present at the death could possibly report these to him. Is he just clairvoyant? And that hero - racketeer, bank-robber, murderer - "A great man," one character calls him, "a great American" says another. Hmmm....

Oh well; one positive piece of propaganda does show up toward the end, when the Nazis line a group of children up against a wall and shoot them. A bit of a brutal throw-away in a film like this, but since this is really something Nazis did, it was important to communicate it to American audiences, so they could get a glimpse at their real enemy - which, since this is the point of the film, made this brief brutal moment worth the whole effort, I guess.