Sarentrol Masterful Cinema

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

howardeisman I saw this movie when it first came out. My age group cohort, the males anyway, still remember this movie fondly. Every kid saw it. Of course it's ridiculous, in the same way the Three Stooges are ridiculous. We wouldn't criticize our three stooge friends for not being realistic.At the time this movie came out, Americans didn't know about concentration camps and the Holocaust. Thus, the silliness of this film can be expected to fall flat for adults who watch it now. However, laughing at Hitler gang movies was quite common in 42, 43, 44. It was a common recreation.I will also add that this was Ward Bond's only starring role in his long movie career.

CelluloidRehab I am continuing my "dead or alive" theme with this little war-time propaganda soporific. Before Blood Diamond, Gorillas in the Mist and The Forbidden Dance, Ward Bond went in to Germany via Canada and Great Britain, to kill Adolf Schicklgruber (a.k.a Adolf Hitler). Now I see where the inspiration for Coleman Francis' Red Zone Cuba came from. I will summarize the main points : Steve Maschick (Bond) has just been released from Alcatraz for tax evasion, after serving an 11 year of 12 stint, with his cronies "The Book" (Paul Fix, Alumni of Night of the Lepus) and "Dutch" (the handicap-able Warrne Hymer). The same day a rich tycoon puts up a $1,000,000 reward for the killing of Schicklgruber (Hilter.... oh Monty!!). To set the record straight. A bunch of beer swilling low-level criminal mobsters want to infiltrate the deepest corners of the Third Reich and assassinate Hitler. The plan, none. It's all improvised. Colonel "Hannibal" Smith would have said something about "jazz" at this point.I'm done with the plot at this point. I will continue by sharing with you some of the intricacies of this sublime stain. They must have been working with a very, very limited budget. The cockpit of the paratrooper plane looks like a giant room, with an oval arch. The pilot is sitting down in a chair, "acting" like he's looking out the window and may be (through some miracle) holding a flight stick. Ed Wood's production would have looked like Steve Spielberg's by comparison. And of course there the hackney stock footage. We have a musical score that boils your blood at the same time it melts your heart. Yankee Doodle is drawn out into a 2 minute epic, describing the griping and stress-filled mood of hiding under the stairs in the sitting room. It's melody is wave-like, moving from eerie to patriotic to melancholy. It also moves to nausea. We also have yet another movie where Hitler is right handed. If I remember correctly, Herr Schicklgruber was of the left persuasion. We also cannot forget about characters such as Else, the German Duchess with a sometimes German, sometimes French accent from London, who doubles as a double agent. Have you noticed Germany looks a lot like California? Yeah, I've had enough already. How about you ?Ward Bond worked on 25+ movies with John Ford and who knows how many with John Wayne. He was always the lone-cowboy backing you up. Were the times really that tough or was it the damn old studio system again, with its contractual obligations that lead to his involvement in this production? Ward has committed his energy and effort into this role. It is sad that there is nothing there to keep you . Ward is by far the only reason to keep watching. It is to see his over the top performance as a leading man. This movie also seems a bit ironic when thinking what happened to Ward during the blacklisting in Hollywood and all his Communist comrades. This is a collection of celluloid film which adds up to a ridiculous premise, that is remarkably forward thinking considering the idiocracy of the 26th century to come. It has influenced numerous movies from the Dirty Dozen to Invasion U.S.A to Delta Force. Ward's Anti Nazi-Pro Child message at end, would go on to influence a certain man from Cuba. And inspire millions to "Say hello to his little friend..."

donnielee46 Three gangsters head for Nazi Germany to capture Adolph Hitler and claim a big monetary reward. With a lot of Fuherer imposter's, how would they find the "real" Hitler: Simple, he had a beer stein cut on his upper lip delivered during the famous Munich Beer Hall Putsch, and grew his trademark mustache to cover it up. All the boys had to do was keep shaving "Hitlers" until they found the real one with the scar. And how did they learn to speak German??? Simple: (in Ward Bond's words) "...from driving a beer truck in Milwaukee..." To everyone who tells me that "Plan 9 From Outer Space" was the worst film ever made, I simply reply: "You haven't seen 'Hitler: Dead or Alive." Watch it for laughs!

grasshopper54 I was always interested in viewing a Bobby Watson vehicle. Recently I purchased this film solely for that reason. Film historians tell us that Mr. Watson was a dead ringer for Adolf Hitler and I had to see this for myself. Watson only shows up in the film after about two thirds of the way through.All in all, this film is so bad that it's pathetic. Putting aside propaganda reasons, it boggles the imagination why an accomplished actor like Ward Bond (Gentleman Jim, Wagon Train, Gone With the Wind) would actually star in such a farce. My only guesses are that 1) he was hard up for money or 2) he felt it was his patriotic duty to do this stinker.The Nazis in this film are shown to be idiotic boobs and incompetent to the point of not even being able to keep POWs from escaping from Dachau. Actually, Dachau wasn't even used as a POW camp. At any rate, that aside, they are depicted as a group of nincompoops, much like the ones in the TV program, Hogan's Heroes. I always thought that Stalag 17 spawned the idea for Hogan's Heroes, but now I think that Hitler Dead or Alive may have been the movie that influenced Bing Crosby to air that TV classic!!Simply put, this movie is nonsensical, moronic and unrealistic. It's worth the time to view it once, just for laughs, but to view it a second time is a waste of time!