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

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