Hitler: the last ten days - Der Letzte Akt (1955)

Director = Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Writers:

Fritz Habeck (writer)
Michael A. Musmanno (novel)

	Albin Skoda	...	Adolf Hitler
	Oskar Werner	...	Hauptmann Wüst
	Lotte Tobisch	...	Eva Braun
	Willy Krause	...	Joseph Goebbels
	Erich Stuckmann	...	Heinrich Himmler
	Erland Erlandsen	...	Albert Speer
	Curt Eilers	...	Martin Bormann
	Leopold Hainisch	...	Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel
	Otto Schmöle	...	Generaloberst Alfred Jodl
	Herbert Herbe	...	General Hans Krebs
	Hannes Schiel	...	SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Günsche
	Erik Frey	...	General Wilhelm Burgdorf
	Otto Wögerer	...	Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim

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Made only ten years after the actual events, and set in the Bunker under the Reichstag, Pabst's film is wholly gripping. It reeks of sulfurous death awaiting the perpetrators of world war. Haven't seen this in over three decades, but it remains strong in my visual and emotional memory. The characters seem to be waiting to be walled up in their cave. Searing bit of dialog between two Generals: "Does God exist?" "If He did, we wouldn't." Shame this is not more readily available for exhibition or purchase because it would be interesting to view and compare this film with the documentary about Traudl Junge, "Im Toten Winkel" {aka "Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary") and "Downfall" with Bruno Ganz.
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Originally Der Letzte Akt, The Last Ten Days has also been released to English speaking countries as Hitler: The Last Ten Days and The Last Ten Days of Adolf Hitler. This should establish for good and all the subject matter of this film. Albin Skoda plays Hitler, who wanders in and out of delirium as his Third Reich crumbles. He is surrounded by reams of existential dialogue from his generals and associates, courtesy of screenwriter Erich Maria Remarque, who based his script on Judge Michael A. Musmanno's book Ten Days to Die. Oscar Werner costars as a fictional "good" Nazi officer who acts as the film's voice of reason. Filmed in Austria, The Last Ten Days was inadequately remade in 1972, with Alec Guinness as Der Fuehrer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide