Black Fox: The True Story of Adolf Hitler

Good try but the format does not work. Comparing Hitler to classical allegory is like comparing apples and oranges. The Hitler story does not need to be compared with anything because it is incomparable. Hitler's story speaks for itself. Comparing him or his career with fictional characters in superfluous, and does injustice the latter. No character in fiction can duplicate Adolf Hitler. Hitler's story is so unique that further metaphorical embellishments serve as mere distractions. And when depicting Hitler's entourage, comparisons with fiction become ludicrous. Hitler was an orator but one need not compare him to a bellow or a megaphone, though such comparisons could be amusing. Hitler as a black fox? No way. Hitler was Hitler; leave the fox alone.

In this age of A&E's Biography, and cable channels devoted to documentaries, sometimes it's eye-opening and entertaining to go back and watch one made "in the past" when theatrical showings were the only outlet.

Then again, sometimes it's not.

Black Fox actually seems older than it is- I'm surprised when I see that it was filmed in 1962, because it comes across as a heavy-handed propaganda piece concurrent with Hitler's reign.

It's almost embarrassing to watch, as the "documentary" actually has very little to say, and Marlene Dietrich gives her all to give it some kind of meaning. The film switches back and forth between Hitler's machinations and doings, and an odd, old folk-tale of a "black fox" and his dealings with his fellow animals. The folk-tale is illustrated with static woodcuts- you half expect a picture of Vlad Tepes somewhere along the way. It's as if the directors were either trying to put the whole WW2/Europe story into something acceptable for children, or were trying to emulate George Orwell's Animal Farm, and turn history into an anthropomorphic parable.

The film is very heavy-handed, and the parable just bogs the whole thing down. I admit I write this with a view of the modern documentary in mind... but Black Fox isn't entertaining, isn't educational, and was a waste of a purchase.

Yes. Indeed. This Nazi/WW2 history-documentary from 1962 certainly had its fair share of good points, as well as its decidedly bad points, too.

Topping the list of its most detrimental deficits of all was having to endure listening to Hollywood, glamour queen, Marlene Dietrich do the voice-over narration.

Delivering her "spiel" in a strictly "phone-in" fashion - Dietrich had a really annoying habit of pronouncing her r's as if they were w's. For example - She pronounced the word "brave" as "bwave", and "great" as "gweat".

As you can well-imagine - Listening to Dietrich ramble on this way with her extra-thick, German accent quickly began to grate on my nerves like you wouldn't believe.

Had this history-documentary offered the viewer the option for subtitles (which it didn't), then, yes, I could have easily turned a total deaf-ear to that doofus Dietrich (who came across to me sounding like a female Elmer Fudd).

Anyway - On the positive side - This documentary certainly did contain some really excellent, vintage, newsreel footage that made it a worthwhile program to watch, in the long run.

I rented this movie years ago and it was the first time I had seen any of the old archive footage of the atrocities of Adolf Hitler. The scenes of the ovens, the starving masses and the Allied soldiers helping the survivors and bulldozing the hundreds and hundreds of emancipated corpses, made me burst into tears. It may not be the quintessential "Holocaust" movie (Schindler's List perhaps?), but it is worth seeing. Even though it is painful to watch. While not for young children, curious older teens should only watch this with their parents so it can be discussed and their questions answered. This kind of movie makes us all witnesses and jurors to this horrid time in history, and keepers of the truth so that it will never happen again.

~Learn the lessons from History, lest we be doomed to repeat~

Two years after she played the widow of a German general in Judgement At Nuremberg, Marlene Dietrich took up the task of narrating the documentary The Black Fox. Dietrich who certainly saw in her life the beginnings of Adolph Hitler's rise to power. Fortunately she had the good sense to leave Germany. She visited there post World War II on a few occasions, but Dietrich was never really welcomed back. She died in 1991 in Paris and only then did she come back to Germany to be buried.

What's different here is the use of a German folk tale The Black Fox with accompanying art work, interpolated into the film between scenes of the usual newsreel footage. Dietrich reads part of the tale which was adapted by Goethe and it's entertaining with a new perspective. Especially for German audiences brought up Goethe's literature.

I also noticed that the story Dietrich narrated was encapsulated in many ways by Burt Lancaster's speech acknowledging his guilt in Judgement At Nuremberg. Run that after The Black Fox and you'll see what I mean.

It's a story that cannot be told often enough and The Black Fox won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1962. Quite deserved.