The Hitler Gang
            
Director: John Farrow
Year:  1944
Rating: 7.0
This is a rather remarkable film both for the narrative as well as when it was made. It stands up very well today. It follows the life of Adolf Hitler from his lying in a hospital bed after being wounded during WW I up to his gaining complete power. And after a bit of double checking on my part, much of the film is surprisingly accurate even if the time line is muffled a bit and the conversations clearly fabricated. Made in 1944 it is certainly a propaganda film and Hitler is not put in the best of light - an opportunist, a coward, a demagogue, a mass killer, an evil visionary - but it would rather be hard to paint Hitler in a positive light! Hitler: The Good Side. But the real characters who joined him and the Nazi Party are not only reasonably truthfully depicted but they found actors who strongly resemble them. The writers clearly went to the trouble of doing some research.



I have no idea who Bobby Watson is - not a very impressive filmography - but damn does he have Hitler down. He looks just like him and when he goes into frothing mad mode, you feel like you are watching Hitler. In fact, he was so good at imitating Hitler that he played him in a few others films - a comedy short called The Devil with Hitler, a sequel to The Devil called Nazty Nuisance, a short titled Don't Be a Sucker, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (a cameo), a cameo in A Foreign Affair, The Story of Mankind and his final Hitler was On the Double in 1961 with Danny Kaye. Too bad he was dead by Inglorious Basterds. But he was definitely the go to guy for Hitler. Other characters that make an appearance are those old time favorites - Goring, Himmler, Rohm, Hess, Generals Ludendorff and Hindenburg, Rosenberg, Strasser, Streicher and Goebbels (played by Martin Kosleck who always plays Nazis but in real life was one step ahead of the Gestapo who had him on a list to be executed). A rogues gallery.



Showing up also is Hitler's niece, Geli Raubel, 17 years old who comes to live with him in the late 1920's when Hitler's sister took over the household duties. I had never heard of this part of Hitler's life and thought it was fictional but no - he became obsessed with her - perhaps sexually though that is unclear - forbade her from seeing other men - and then according to the film had her killed when she fell in love. Again history says it is debatable. She may have committed suicide. Some of it feels a little nutty such as the scene when Hitler tells his cohorts that they needed someone to blame for Germany's betrayal and they bat around a few potential minority groups - until someone says the Jews of course and Hitler's eyes light up. Of course, the Jews.




What makes the film more than a documentary with actors is that it gets personal - arguments between Hitler and his men, them thinking he is a weakling, his friendship with Goring who brought in the Brown Shirts to beat up the opposition, his finagling and dealing with the various power bases - the unions, the military, the church, the industrialists and double crossing them all. They actually make him into a real person as crazy as he was.



The film ends before the fates of many of these men are mentioned. We know about Hitler, Goring who had become a morphine addict after being shot during the Beer Hall Putsch was executed at Nuremburg, Hess flew to England in 1940 on his own to negotiate a treaty and spent the rest of his life in prison until he hung himself in a Russian prison, Himmler killed himself with poison hidden in his mouth when he was captured, Streicher was executed at Nuremburg, Rosenberg - the Nazi theorist - was executed at Nuremberg, Ludendorff who was a famous General in WW1 initially endorsed Hitler but later told von Hindenberg not to trust Hitler. He dies of cancer. Von Hindenberg died of natural causes but not before he turned full power over to Hitler and Rohm and Strasser who headed the Storm Troopers were killed by Hitler in the Night of the Long Knives in 1934. Rohm and Hitler went way back even though Hitler knew he was homosexual - but the military that was concerned about the rising power of the SA, told Hitler either us or Rohm. Goodbye Rohm. So not a lot of happy endings.