Hitler: Dead or Alive

******SPOILERS******Off the wall war movie about a bunch of gangsters who become patriotic, well the million dollar reward helps too, and are dropped into Germany to get, as the movie title says, Hitler dead or alive. Hitler, a highly decorated WWI combat veteran, is made out to look like a coward or a fool as he begs for his life when captured or runs and hides from the slightest sound or danger when he's in charge! Watching all this now, in 2003, I can only imagine how people watching "Hitler Dead or Alive" back then, in 1942, would have wondered just how Hitler and his Nazis got as far as they did in the first place.

Totally insane plot, even for a movie made during wartime, where there was stories going around that Hitler had doubles. With this in mind the boys from the mob had to make sure that they caught the real Hitler they brought along someone with them who knew Hitler,from back in the beer hall days of the 1920's. The Hitler expert, as well as former friend, recognized him by a scar that he had over his upper lip that resulted from a bottle thrown at him during a beer hall brawl! Believe it or not were told that's the reason he grew a mustache! Oh really! When Hitler is caught the gangster's in order to find out that he's the real McCoy, or Hitler, shave his famous mustache off and there's the scar! At that point Hitler knowing that the jig is up, as well as mustache off, cries out hysterically to his captors "Please spear my life and I'll give you half of my kingdom".

This movie is even funnier then "The Producers" which is a comedy about Hitler and the Third Reich made for laughs years after Hitler and his regime was history, and no longer a threat to anyone. Unlike that film "Hitler Dead or Alive" that was made in all seriousness as a moral boaster for the "War Effort". Where the ending of the movie could well have lost the war for the allies if it was taken seriously just for the false and moronic information that it presented.

Just before Hitler is shot by is own troops because they didn't recognize him without his mustache, I kid you not, the commander of the SS execution squad that was about to do Hitler in says disgustedly to him "how did Germany produce a piece of scum like you". A moment later at the same time thinking that Hitler got away from the gangsters he says triumphantly about his beloved Fuhrer, whom he's just about to have executed, in complete awe "The Man Is Pure Genius"! I had to take my heart medication pills to keep from getting a heart attack just from laughing!

Oh yes the end of this ridiculous movie tells us that Hitler was actually killed in 1942 and the Hitler you see in the papers and newsreels is just a double. I guess that's how in the end the allies won the war according to this outrageous film: Hitler wasn't around to lead the Germans to their final victory! But you know what you'll never read this amazing "fact" in any history book or see it on the History Channel! Oh yeah do you wanna bet!

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.

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.

Reportedly, in April 1865, upon hearing the dreadful news from Washington, D.C., Benjamin Disraeli made the comment that "Assassination has never changed history!". A brave statement, but dubious. Lincoln's murder took a first rate political mind and spirit out of an office that needed him, and put in a misguided, ill prepared man with some sense of his office's importance. The result was that Lincoln's hope to restore the Union with a benign peace was wrecked by the inept President Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republican Congress which sought a harsher peace on the South. John Wilkes Booth had changed history indeed.

Same happened in 44 B.C. when Julius Caesar was killed. Same happened in 1914 when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed and World War I broke out. Assassination does effect history.

In 1942 two Czech patriots were parachuted into their homeland to carry out a mission. They did - they killed Reinhart Heydrich, the "Hangman" "Protector" of Bohemia, and creator of the Final Solution. Heydrich was in a car that was blown up, and it is pleasant to announced that the creep actually died from being skewered by eight heavy springs in the seat that he was seated in - it took him over a week to die. Given his involvement in the Holacaust and other atrocities, one can only say he died the way he deserved. Unfortunately, the Germans destroyed two villages, and killed hundreds of people in retaliation. Because of that the Allies did not carry out any other assassination plots in Europe against Nazis.

But the notion of killing Nazi leaders was instilled in the air, and I think that is why this film was made soon after. To Americans Heydrich was vaguely known (after the destruction of Lidice and the other village interest in the "Hangman" led to two films being made: Fritz Lang's HANGMEN ALSO DIE and Douglas Sirk's HITLER'S MADMAN). HITLER, DEAD OR ALIVE is not a good film - it is really rather stupid. The idea of hiring three American criminals to kill Der Fuhrer is outlandish. But to be fair, this idea of criminals fighting the good fight against Nazis was fairly common in Hollywood films. Nazis never fought fairly, so we needed someone who also fought unfairly. Witness Humphrey Bogart and his co-horts in ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (against Conrad Veidt) or Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE (admittedly against traitors working for Japan, not Germany) or LUCKY JORDAN. Still, if you want to kill the most vicious government leader in history, why use three gunman instead of working out a plan with the government. So if you have problems with this, you will have problems with the entire film.

The only thing I liked about this movie was when Bobs Watson (as Hitler) makes a comment to a cohort that he eventually plans to doublecross Mussolini. Perhaps it might have happened sooner or later, but Der Fuhrer actually had a high regard for Il Duce, and later in the war sent his leading special agent, Otto Skorzeny, into Italy to rescue the imprisoned ex-head of the government. Still it was amusing to hear that. Otherwise, the film was a total wash-out.

I saw this movie when it first came out. My age group cohort, the males anyway, still remember this movie fondly. Every kid saw it. Of course it's ridiculous, in the same way the Three Stooges are ridiculous. We wouldn't criticize our three stooge friends for not being realistic.

At the time this movie came out, Americans didn't know about concentration camps and the Holocaust. Thus, the silliness of this film can be expected to fall flat for adults who watch it now. However, laughing at Hitler gang movies was quite common in 42, 43, 44. It was a common recreation.

I will also add that this was Ward Bond's only starring role in his long movie career.