La vie privée d'Hitler

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Hitler and all things Nazi. TV was exploding with war movies and "historical drama" especially during late night Tv programming. I first saw Hitler on the "Late show" when older movies were shown. As a kid, I completely missed the plot of the movie being about Hitler's sexual hang-ups. For instance his devotion to his dead mother(Which never left him) Sado-sexual desires, controlling all aspects of a woman's life. Which led to the still unsolved case of Geli Ruebal's suicide (The movie gives an obviously fictional account of Geli being murdered by Emil Maurice and Himmler) Hitler, supposedly could only be aroused by being humiliated and urinated on by a partner.(According to Dr. Walter C. Langer's psychological assessment of Hitler published under the title "The Mind of Adolf Hitler) Homosexuality is alluded to (this was 1962) by Roehm's suttle attraction to an SA trooper. In one scene that could be viewed as homoerotic, a group shirtless, muscular men are seen being hanged on the gallow. Roehm alludes to a homosexual relationship with Hitler, although couched in vague terms.. Maybe not 100% accurate, (What movie really is) I think this movie deserves a view.

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I have seen Richard Basehart in many things and I always thought he had potential but I never saw him do anything that made me go WOW!! That was good! That is until I saw this flick. I have read volumes on Hitler and have viewed and listened to Hitler's speeches at Nuremberg and the Reichstag and I think I have some sense of how he was and I think Richard Basehart did the best and most believable portrayal of him that I have ever seen. Hitler was of course extremely enigmatic and charismatic so he would be difficult to portray and I never saw anyone do a good portrayal of him until this film. The rest of the actors do a good job and the movie itself is fair to good; although it suffered from a low budget. Historically accurate as best I can recall. I think they relied heavily on Hughe Trevor Ropers history of him. But for all its good points see it for Richard Basehart he really shines in this!!

Richard Basehart is OK as Hitler, even if a bit over the top. The rest of the cast is horrible, frankly. The film is an attempt to render Hitler from a psychological perspective, but the insights it offers are cartoonish oversimplifications at best, and can't make up its mind what Hitler's "problem" was. At one point it is implied he was impotent, at another point it is suggested he was homosexual. And always the business about his mother. The film offers more speculation than fact. The time frame of the film is a bit skewed too. Nothing of Hitler's youth is presented for a supposed psychological study. The year 1934 takes up nearly half the film; World War II gets at most ten minutes start to finish. In the end you have no more understanding of Hitler's personality, or his appeal to Germans, than you did at the outset. Which marks the film as a failure.

I was very excited to see the film being a History Major in college and somewhat of a World War 2 buff , but I found the movie to be slow and silly. Eva Braun was nothing like the portrayal of her done in this film. She was a silly, and light hearted girl who laughed a lot. This movie portrays Hitler as a sexually frustrated weirdo who is obsessed with his mother, when those who lived around Hitler swear that he had a healthy sexual relationship with Braun. The acting was good, but the script was just not even close to accurate. Also, Stauffenburg was not hanged..he was shot. The film takes to many liberties with the historical record in my opinion.

I don't think we'll ever really know why actors sign a contract to portray Adolph Hitler in a movie. Don't they know it's a mistake that could ruin their careers forever? Perhaps, as was the case for Alec Guinness and Richard Basehart, their careers were very far south anyway so it didn't matter. This 1962 biopic starred the latter after his jaunt in Italy ruined his career in Hollywood. Unfortunately for him, it did nothing to buoy him up for a while. It was a forgettable movie with cheap production values, and although he tried his hardest, it's very difficult to get good reviews for a Hitler movie.

One interesting slant on this movie, if we're being kind here, is that the main focus is how he feels about women. We know he had a very complicated relationship with his mother, and as we also know, the relationship a boy has with his mother permeates through to adulthood and colors all relationships with women in the future. We see him time and again in the film having relationships with the women spiral out of control. He uses his power to lure them in, then explodes in rage when he thinks that power is all they're after. He's just incapable of being vulnerable in front of a woman and letting her decide if she likes the real him. Still, does anyone really want to watch this movie? Stick with Fourteen Hours for your Richard Basehart acting fix.