The Hitler Gang (1944)

Directed by John Farrow; produced by Buddy G. DeSylva

The rise of Adolf Hitler (Bobby Watson) is dramatised in this, probably the first biographical motion picture of the dictator. Beginning with the end of the Great War in 1918, his initially small and slow progress as head of an obscure political party brings him into contact with all those who would aid, accompany and profit by his ascendance.

Undeniably a propaganda film, The Hitler Gang is nonetheless a legitimate attempt to show the origins of the man most of the world was fighting by the time the movie was made. That it adhered mainly to the truth is remarkable though, in Adolf Hitler, the truth is bad enough. Falsehoods are added here and there, but it’s difficult to determine whether this was deliberate on the writers’ part or if it was due to incomplete or unwittingly inaccurate knowledge of the subject, who was still rather an enigma in 1944.

  

Probably the biggest departure from reality is the depiction of Hitler as a coward. The wound by which he is incapacitated at the end of the Great War is treated as psychosomatic, “hysteria”, whereas it was in fact a genuine wound. He is shown as deserting his comrades during the ‘Beer Hall Putsch’, and being arrested hiding in a wardrobe afterward. Hitler’s bravery in battle was recognized by the award of decorations. However, as courage under fire is likely the most universally admired attribute in a man, the movie’s writers may have wished to remove any chance of their subject being admirable.

Hitler is also shown as easily swayed by others, even used as the tool of stronger bullies. While self-interest undoubtedly motivated a great many to hitch their wagons to his star, Hitler remained fully in control of the Nazi Party, except for rivals, who were recognized and later eliminated. Further, though the German Army plotted from the end of the Great War to restore its power and size, it was more ready than willing to seize power from the civilian government of the time.

As well as being an assortment of truth and myth, The Hitler Gang’s story is an uneven mixture of the detailed and the simplistic. The most obvious example of the latter trait is depicting the beginnings of Nazi persecution of Jews as a spontaneous choice of a scapegoat for speeches, rather than the culmination of European anti-Semitism. On the other hand, some complexity is used in describing the Night of the Long Knives, the eradication by Hitler and his henchmen of the old party elite, including his friend and supporter Ernst Röhm (Roman Bohnen). A largely unknown element of Nazi policy, its fight against Christianity, is given time; indeed, Alfred Rosenberg (Tonio Selwart), the leading Nazi theorist, reads off several of the genuine thirty ‘Articles’ of the new National Socialist religion. And a subject that must have made censors uneasy is Hitler’s obsession with his niece (Poldi Dur), though her death, now believed to be suicide, is implied as murder.

Much of the credibility of such a film depends on the actors. In Watson, the casting director couldn’t have chosen a better look-alike. Watson, whose career in films went back to 1925, portrayed the dictator nine times, almost always for comedic effect. Here, he is deadly serious, though when compared to something like Bruno Ganz’s superb performance in Downfall, Watson’s work comes close to caricature. Even so, showing Hitler as embarrassed, delighted, resigned, gives Watson scope, and he does very well with it.

The other actors are mostly well chosen for their physical resemblance to their rôles. Victor Varconi could have been Rudolf Hess’s twin. Alex Pope conveys Herman Göring’s character better than his appearance (except for his girth), and Bohnen is much less sinister than Röhm seems to have been.

While I can certainly recommend The Hitler Gang to any movie-goer, I am hard-pressed to determine its category. It may fall under both history and biography, certainly under propaganda, yet does not quite fit fully under any. As a curio, then, as an attempt to treat someone as fairly and truthfully as possible when he was a despicable human and an enemy of civilization, The Hitler Gang must be seen.