Hitler (1962)

Stuart Heisler directs this seldom seen film about the private life of Adolf Hitler. Hoping to find an explanation of the madman's methodical rise to power and demise of his domination of his war torn country ...look somewhere else. The evil dictator is shown struggling with his love life and reluctance to cooperate with his doctor(John Wengraf), who was trying to treat the leader with his impotency and Oedipal complex. Maria Emo plays Eva Braun; Heinrich Himmler is portrayed by Rick Traeger and Martin Kosleck plays Joseph Goebbels. The megalomaniac Hiter doesn't seem to see how his paranoia affects his decision making. Archival footage is employed to glue the movie's progression. Other cast members: Celia Lovsky, Narda Onyx, Gregory Gaye, John Mitchum, Carl Esmond and Sirry Steffen. This film is also known as Women of Nazi Germany. Those that harbor curiosity of Hitler should be pleased.

Portraying Hitler as being in a virtually perpetually hysterical state, as this film does, is contrary to any historical reality. There are two interesting omissions in it. First, there is no mention, as far as I could ascertain, of what appears to have been Hitler's central obsession, his hatred of Jews, for the destruction of whom he devoted substantial resources which could have been used to further another of his obsessions, world conquest. Second, in the brief portrayal of the conquest of Poland, the film depicts the blackening of the entirety of a map of Poland to represent the Nazi conquest. However, the Nazis did not occupy all of Poland; they split Poland with their then ally, the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, with whom they had entered into an agreement beforehand to divide Poland between them, and pursuant to which the Soviets invaded and occupied the eastern half of Poland. Surely the producers of this film were aware of this fact, so why did did they omit it?

The most terrible dictator of the 20th century is portrayed convincingly by the star Richard Basehart. The ruthless hate and mania of Hitler knew no bounds and this film portrays Hitler unsympathetically at different stages of his ascent to power in Germany. There is a perverse fascination to see Basehart's Hitler suffer in his personal life.Though the characters portrayed were real, this is a drama and not a documentary. If you're looking for a comprehensive study of Hitler's life, many books at the library are available. Watch this film for a straightforward look at Hitler's psychotic character as it may have manifested itself to those closest to him.This movie offers an "inside view" of Hitler's relationships with the women closest to him, Geli Raubal and Eva Braun. We also see the possibility that a pivotal and controversial event in the Nazi's rise to power--the burning of the Reichstag--was in all probability an arson committed by the Nazis themselves.The martial soundtrack by Hans J. Salter is an added bonus.

HITLER, an Allied Artists production in 1962 was THE definitive portrayal of Adolph Hitler as I know and understand him in my extensive readings. More a psychological portrait, my closest friend at least conveyed to Mrs. Basehart at an art opening in Beverly Hills that I considered this her husband's finest portrayal. If only I had the good fortune to have met him during his lifetime to convey this! The entire cast is superb and the only flaw in this effort was its limited budget which relied on a great deal of stock footage from the Second World War. Martin Kosleck shines in his role as does the rest of the cast. A landmark film for all time and an accurate representation of the most complex and demonic personality of the entire 1900s.