ChicDragon
It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
Marva-nova
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Cody
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
bkoganbing
The character of Adolph Hitler will fascinate historians for more than the thousand years he wanted his Reich to last and for psychiatrists even more than that. The folks who are schooled in both disciplines get something to analyze with this film Hitler and Richard Basehart's performance in the title role. As for performance the reason for Hitler being the nasty dude that he was that the Fuehrer was a dud in the bedroom. That was something Geli Raubel played by Cordula Tantrow said and signs her death warrant in saying same. In fact she more than hints at the reason, possible incest with his mother. Something that Hitler himself would reject after all psychiatry was simply "Jew science".Eva Braun portrayed here by Maria Emo is another ill defined role. If we believe Albert Speer's memoir Eva was basically a nice girl without a political thought in her head, but was simply a power groupie and a celibate one at that.Such familiar faces as Hogan's Heroes Sgt.Schultz played by John Banner is Gregor Strasser, John Mitchum is Hermann Goering, and the obligatory Martin Kosleck is Joseph Goebbels. Berry Kroeger is Ernst Roehm with barely a hint of the homosexuality that later offended Hitler so mightily after when he had to make a deal with the army. The Code was still in place, but you'll spot it in the film.Richard Basehart gives a sincere portrayal of Hitler. But the film is badly written and directed.
quijebo99
Richard Basehart is a good actor overall, so his performance is decent. But the film is so ahistorical that it should definitely be skipped. It is mainly a *psychological profile*, but the psychology is wrong. Its main strength is that it does show Hitler's complete disregard for Germany and its people during his last days.As noted by someone else, this film seems to be based on Trevor-Roper's book. Roper's research, however, was done immediately after the war (to investigate/refute malicious Soviet accusations that Hitler was still alive and possibly living in a British-controlled area) and was based on *very few* direct witnesses (the Soviets had most of them in custody). Vast amounts of additional evidence have come out since then.((In contrast, the German film "Downfall" is an absolutely *brilliant* portrayal that shows not only Hitler's megalomania, destructiveness and self-pity, but also his force of personality, particularly in the scene with von Greim. ("Downfall" seems based on the book "The Bunker", which is by far the best of the "Hitler's last days" books.)))Just a few examples of the false things in the movie "Hitler" (in the examples, H is used as an abbrev for Hitler): As noted by others, there is *no* evidence that H was impotent or homosexual. Some American and British psych people speculated on this, particularly during and immediately after the war, but they had no access to H.H's interactions with Eva: everyone who met Eva said she had no interest in politics or the war and would never have challenged H on those topics.The scenes of Stauffenberg's bombing and aftermath are ludicrous: H didn't notice the briefcase or comment on it; it was placed to H's right, not left; the bomb didn't go off for several minutes (giving Stauffenberg time to get away); and Stauffenberg was not hanged but shot (within hours of the bombing by a co-plotter trying to cover his own guilt), although many other co-plotters were hanged later.The director allows Basehart to be much too physically vigorous, even though he does limp. H's health was *extremely* poor by April 1945. H, after all, had been under severe stress and been a drug addict for years. Eyewitnesses noted that H looked a decade older than he really was (and he was 56) and could often barely shuffle his feet forward. (Thus, by the way,there is *no* chance H escaped from the bunker and went to South America, or anywhere else. H feared capture far more than death, and so would never have risked trying to escape.)As a more minor point, the Berchtesgaden/Berghof window/view in the film is pathetic compared to the actual window/view. The actual window was *huge* (much taller than a person), offered a panoramic view of the mountain and could be electronically lowered into the wall.
Andy Sandfoss
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.
csdietrich
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.
