The Secret Life of Adolf Hitler (1958)

First reaction, on watching this hour-long documentary from 1958, was to be stunned, yet again by Hitler's build-up of power and mobilisation of arms. This was not his secret life, but his public life, and it amazes every time. No telling where all this footage came from, though I spotted a sliver from Leni Riefenstahl, of a young boy vigorously pounding on a drum. Those regimented masses, and the forest of upstretched arms presented a threat not exactly matched by Osama bin Laden! This is a truly lightning tour of Hitler's life and the footage is cut to the nearest millimetre.On reflection, the addition of Eva Braun's anomalous gymnastics and innocent home movies, and the nature of the narration, as well as the virtually total elimination of Britain's role in Hitler's downfall, then caused a sense of puzzlement. There was not the slightest hint of Britain's solitary defiance of Hitler in the skies above the Channel, until the attack on Pearl Harbour, and Hitler's declaration of war against America finally forced US entry in the war, nor of the desert action against Rommel. It was clear from this film that the US of A had won WWII single-handed, although it was admitted the Russians had done some mopping up at the end. While Hitler was not a house painter, as stated more than once, it was extremely interesting to have a detailed account of his final suicide, and the terminal cremation of his and Eva Braun's corpses. Who was Eldorous Dayton ?It turns out, from Google, that he was, surprise, surprise, chess columnist for the Mount Vernon Daily Argus and New Rochelle Standard Star. He also wrote poetry. Besides his book on Hitler, he also wrote on Harry Truman. This unusual combination of interests partially explains some of the oddities in the film. It is certainly worth seeing, but is misnamed and needs approaching with a critical eye.

A bit less than an hour long, this documentary consists almost entirely of newsreel footage and home movies. There are only four talking heads and they take up only a few minutes of screen time. About a quarter of the film shows us Hitler, Eva Braun, and their friends frolicking at the Berghof in the Bavarian Alps.A surprising amount of the footage will be unfamiliar, even to devotees of the History Channel.Of course it's difficult to crimp a war that lasted seven or so years into fifty-eight minutes, but this serves as a kind of refresher course or, let's say, a brief introduction for those who know nothing of World War II, perhaps not even that it occurred. (After historian Barbara Tuchman's guest lecture on the causes of World War I at a famous Midwestern university, a student congratulated her on how enlightening her talk had been -- he'd always wondered why "the other" was called World War II.)Yes, come to think of it, we might profitably consider showing this documentary in high school history classes, propaganda and all. And the resonant, authoritative baritone voice of Westbrook Van Voorhis, the narrator, DOES in fact slant things a bit. "The United States invaded North Africa" with no mention of the British who had been fighting Rommel for a year. And it seems the United States crossed the straights of Messina and invaded Italy "led by General Mark Clark." True enough, but the British Eighth Army invaded at the same time led by General Bernard Montgomery. (The other Allies get their due in the brief description of Monte Cassino.) It's understandable that Hitler be described as "diabolical" and so forth. That's to be expected. But it seems a little unkind to Hitler's beloved dog, Blondi, to claim that she was "trained to kill." The dog was no more than a playmate and Hitler had her executed at the Berlin chancellery Gotterdammerung.As for Hitler's other playmate, I've always felt sorry for Eva Braun, described as a "chatelaine", a term that gives her probably more importance than she had historically. She didn't run the castle. Her job was just to be there when Hitler visited. There's a good deal of footage of her, her sister Gretl, and their young friends. She seems more like a pleasant, physically fit, not-quite-pretty, working-class girl swept up by adoration of a powerful national leader. The admiration went both ways. Hitler married her at the end and she suffered the same fate as Blondi. It's difficult to imagine that she endorsed Hitler's policies. It's difficult to believe that she even thought much about them.In any case, this is a dramatic presentation, what with its booming musical score and Van Voorhis' narration, and for some will be informative. For those familiar with the events, it's still a curiosity. These particular black-and-white home movies of Eva Braun are seldom seen today.

Secret Life of Adolph Hitler, The (1958) ** (out of 4) WW2 made documentary covering the life of Hitler from his early childhood to his final days. I was really looking forward to this film since Hitler's sister and several men who knew him during his final days were interviewed but in the end this turned out to be a major disappointment. Even with the first hand accounts of his life, there's really nothing to learn here as the only thing the documentary keeps saying is how evil he was. We never really learn what might have been behind his evilness and the accounts of his final days is rather dull. Some of Eva Braun's home movies of Hitler are on display here.

The life of Hitler and the Third Reich is told through news reel footage and a few interviews. For the most part its a rapid march through the years of Hitler's rise.A good portion of the film is the same old story you've seen a dozen times before,however the film stops about midway in to delve into the relationship between Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun. Using home movies the film shows the transformation of Eva from playful young lady to proper "wife".Its an odd movie. For the most part a straight forward telling of the story, it takes some odd turns. First off it uses sped up footage in a couple of sequences that result in a comedic effect. There is an almost silly insistence that Hitler liked women that seems somehow meant to rehabilitate the image of the fallen leader. Actually the film at times seems to have an almost "gee whiz Hitler wasn't such a bad guy" attitude. I'm not sure what to make of it, especially since some of the narration seems more tongue in cheek rather than serious.More a curio than anything else, its worth a look for those wanting a different take in a Hitler biography.