Hitler--Dead or Alive (1942)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Nick Grinde

Writers:

Karl Brown (writer)
Sam Neuman (screenplay)

Release Date:

3 April 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A team of ex-con bounty hunters go to Germany in search of Hitler. If they can find him, a million dollar reward is to be paid to them. |

Plot Keywords:

Hitler | Nazi | Escape | Plot To Kill Hitler | Character Name In Title

Cast

Ward Bond	...	Steve Maschick
Dorothy Tree	...	Else von Brandt
Warren Hymer	...	Hans 'Dutch' Havermann
Paul Fix	...	Joe 'The Book' Conway
Russell Hicks	...	Samuel Thornton
Bruce Edwards	...	Johnny Stevens
Felix Basch	...	Col. Hecht
Bobby Watson	...	Adolf Hitler (as Bob Watson)
Frederick Giermann	...	Meyer
Kenneth Harlan	...	Cutler
Fee Malten	...	Greta (as Faye Wall)

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Sweden:15

Company:

Ben Judell

Quotes:

Samuel Thornton: Our enemies are the warlords and their followers, not just one person or one group. We must shatter the mailed fist forever... and silence their cry of blood and iron, with blood and iron.

Patriotic gangsters

After eleven years at Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay, several gangsters are released and immediately concoct a scheme to kill Hitler in exchange for a bounty. Why will they succeed? Because they previously assassinated a fellow gangster. If you can accept that premise then the other contrived actions and subplots will be immaterial.

This film is far-removed from Plan 9 From Outer Space not that it is better. This film was produced in 1941 or '42 which was in the early days of the War, long before the German Army retreated from North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Greece, Romania and France. This is a simple story exploiting the hopes and dreams of many Americans.

It is especially interesting that gangsters are cast as heroes and at the end proclaimed "great Americans". J. Edgar Hoover and his star agent Eliot Ness at the FBI must have been livid after spending the 1930s claiming bootleggers and minor gangsters were the greatest threat to America since abolitionists.

While some scenes provoke a smile, this is far from the lunacy of Plan 9. The writer, producer and director of this film are mere apprentices or hacks compared to Ed Wood, Jr. To even compare the two films is a travesty. Unlike Plan 9, I recommend renting this because one viewing is more than enough.

This would have been great comedy if the Three Stooges had been cast as the lead actors. But, they were not and therefore, this is merely a mild broth that is less than filling. However, it does have one redeeming characteristic and that is the ending when "war lords and profiteers" are proclaimed a greater threat than Hitler. It is mind-boggling that the screenwriter foresaw Dick Cheney, the president of Halliburton corporation who loudly advocated during 2003, invading Iraq allegedly to destroy non-existent weapons of mass destruction. And, subsequently out of sheer coincidence received contracts totaling more than $12 billion to rebuild Iraq.