Hitler's Madman (1943)

Director:

Douglas Sirk

Writers:

Peretz Hirschbein (writer)
Albrecht Joseph (story)
(more)

Release Date:

10 June 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

Story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi SS commander, by Czech partisans and the reprisals inflicted by the Nazis on the Czechs.

Plot Keywords:

Evil Man | Czechoslovakian History | Based On Novel

Cast

Patricia Morison	...	Jarmilla Hanka
John Carradine	...	Reinhardt Heydrich
Alan Curtis	...	Karel Vavra
Howard Freeman	...	Heinrich Himmler
Ralph Morgan	...	Jan Hanka
Edgar Kennedy	...	Nepomuk the Hermit
Ludwig Stössel	...	Herman Bauer, Burgomaster
Al Shean	...	Father Cemlanek
Elizabeth Russell	...	Maria Bartonek, Anton's Wife
Jimmy Conlin	...	Dvorak, the Shopkeeper
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Louis V. Arco	...	German Sergeant
Richard Ryen	...	Gestapo
Enrique Acosta	...	Prisoner (uncredited)
Fred Aldrich	...	German Machine Gunner (uncredited)
Nellie Anderson	...	Old Lady Masaryk (uncredited)
Richard Bailey	...	Bartonek (uncredited)
Walter Bonn	...	Military Doctor (uncredited)
Chet Brandenburg	...	Linesman (uncredited)
Budd Buster	...	Conductor (uncredited)
Jorja Curtright	...	Clara Janek (uncredited)
James Dime	...	Townsman (uncredited)
Lester Dorr	...	Sergeant (uncredited)
Natalie Draper	...	Julia Petschek (uncredited)
Danny Duncan	...	Guard (uncredited)
Mary Elliott	...	Anna Parsek (uncredited)
Jim Farley	...	Town Crier (uncredited)
Dan Fitzpatrick	...	Coffin-Bearer (uncredited)
Ava Gardner	...	Franciska Pritric (uncredited)
Leatrice Joy Gilbert	...	Katy Chotnick (uncredited)
John Good	...	Rupert (uncredited)
Gary Gray	...	Little Boy (uncredited)
Frank Hagney	...	Engineer (uncredited)
Ernst Hausman	...	Sentry (uncredited)
Johanna Hofer	...	Frau Magda Bauer (uncredited)
Betty Jaynes	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp	...	Villager (uncredited)
Victor Kilian	...	Janek (uncredited)
Laurie Lane	...	Minna (uncredited)
Vicky Lane	...	Student (uncredited)
Adolf E. Licho	...	Doctor (uncredited)
Emmett Lynn	...	Germak (uncredited)
George Lynn	...	1st Officer (uncredited)
Hugh Maguire	...	Boy (uncredited)
Michael Mark	...	Czech Laborer in Pain (uncredited)
Charles Marsh	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Tully Marshall	...	Teacher (uncredited)
Merrill McCormick	...	Assistant Doctor (uncredited)
John Merton	...	Muller (uncredited)
Ray Miller	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Dennis Moore	...	Orderly (uncredited)
Roger Moore	...	Prisoner (uncredited)
Carl Neubert	...	3rd Officer (uncredited)
Betty Jean Nichols	...	Bartonek Girl (uncredited)
Richard Nichols	...	Bartonek Boy (uncredited)
Fred Nurney	...	Captain (uncredited)
Joe Ploski	...	Townsman (uncredited)
Frances Rafferty	...	Annaliese Cermak (uncredited)
Otto Reichow	...	Gestapo (uncredited)
Lionel Royce	...	Captain Kleist (uncredited)
Hans Schumm	...	Gestapo Officer (uncredited)
Richard Talmadge	...	Chauffeur (uncredited)
Arthur Thalasso	...	Guard (uncredited)
Frank Todd	...	Coffin-Bearer (uncredited)
Sigfrid Tor	...	Gestapo (uncredited)
Celia Travers	...	Heydrich's Nurse (uncredited)
Peter van Eyck	...	Gestapo (uncredited)
Hans von Morhart	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski	...	Lt. Buelow (uncredited)
Sam Waagenaar	...	Sentry (uncredited)
Ben Webster	...	Old Man Masaryk (uncredited)
Carey Wilson	...	Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Blanche Yurka	...	Frau Anna Hanka (uncredited)
Wolfgang Zilzer	...	S.S. Colonel (uncredited)

Directed by
Douglas Sirk

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Peretz Hirschbein		writer
Albrecht Joseph		story
Melvin Levy		writer
Emil Ludwig		story
Bart Lytton		novel "Hangman's Village"
Doris Malloy		writer
Edna St. Vincent Millay		verse
Edgar G. Ulmer		uncredited

Produced by
Rudolf S. Joseph	....	associate producer (as Rudolf Joseph)
Seymour Nebenzal	....	producer

Original Music by
Karl Hajos
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco		(uncredited)
Nathaniel Shilkret		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Jack Greenhalgh
Eugen Schüfftan		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Dan Milner

Production Design by
Edgar G. Ulmer		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Fred Preble
Edward Willens

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Melville De Lay	....	assistant director (as Mel DeLay)
Edgar G. Ulmer	....	second unit director

Sound Department
Mac Dalgleish	....	sound engineer (as W.M. Dalgleish)
Percy Townsend	....	sound engineer

Music Department
Modest Altschuler	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Maurice De Packh	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Paul Marquardt	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Arthur Morton	....	composer: title music (uncredited)
Joseph Nussbaum	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leonid Raab	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Eric Zeisl	....	composer: additional music (uncredited)

Other crew
Felix Bernstein	....	technical advisor
Paul Elbogen	....	technical advisor
Eugen Schüfftan	....	technical director

Production Companies

• Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1943) (USA) (theatrical) (controlled by Loew's Incorporated)
• Cinefear (????) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Filming Locations:

Angeles Crest, Angeles National Forest, California, USA

Company:

Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC)

Trivia:

This film represents one of a small handful of American films which featured the word Hitler or Hitler's, and both referencing Adolf Hitler, in their titles and were ones made around the time of the Second World War. These World War II movies include Hitler's Children (1943); Hitler's Madman (1943) aka Hitler's Hangman; Hitler--Dead or Alive (1942); The Hitler Gang (1944) aka Hitler & co.; the documentary short, Hitler Lives (1945); The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler (1943); Hitler's Women aka Women in Bondage (1943); the comic short, The Devil with Hitler (1942) and Hitler - Beast of Berlin (1939).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Cinema Snob: Hitler: Dead or Alive (#3.28)" (2011)

Not historically correct, but fascinating

Douglas Sirk's career is recalled for his wonderful colorful attacks on the "American Dream" in those films he made (usually with Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman, and Agnes Moorehead) in the 1950s. Never was the lusciousness of American prosperity used to show the underside of our wealth oriented culture. But Sirk had a long career in Europe and Hollywood before he made "Magnificent Obsession" and "Imitation of Life". His films in the middle forties included some superb costume films with George Sanders (like "Summer Storm")and this early one which really stars John Carridine as one of the most monstrous figures of World War II, Reinhard Heydrich the so-called "Protector" of Bohemia, who chaired the Wannsee Conference of 1941 that created the "Final Solution". Whatever degree of venom Carridine brings to the role is nothing like the effortless evil the original Heydrich dripped. Still it is a very effective performance.

The film is based, by the way, on the poem "Lidice" by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Written shortly after that village was decimated in the reprisals following Heydrich's death, it is recited (in a woman's voice) in most of the film, but it's closing lines are recited by the male actors at it's conclusion - quite effectively as most of these actors (Edgar Kennedy, Jimmy Conlon, Ralph Morgan) have been slaughtered by the Nazis in front of us. As some of these actors (Kennedy and Conlon) usually were seen in comedies, their use as straight dramatic actors in this film is a revelation of what they might have done if they had not been used in comedy so much.

To me the best moment of this film (aside the use of the poem) is when Carridine lies dying in a hospital, visited by Howard Freeman as his comrade and fellow S.S. bigwig, Heinrich Himmler. Freeman was an affective actor in comic and dramatic parts, and here shows the hideous Himmler as a banal Babbitt bureaucrat. Perhaps not quite correct historically (Himmler was stranger than George Babbitt) but in it's way quite effective. Carridine had (in his characterization) shown something of the intellectual pretensions of Heydrich, but as he is dying he suddenly realizes he is frightened of dying. He tries to explain this to Himmler who doesn't care (so much for being a fellow Nazi comrade) and only sees the mission of the dying Heydrich to become a martyr to stiffen German will to victory. As Carridine finally dies, Freeman only sees his duty to make a large enough retaliation on the local population so that people will realize that he is harder than the dead martyr ever was.

Historically this is not accurate either. Heydrich had been in high level Nazi planning for several years, and frightened not only Himmler as a rival, but Bormann, Goebbels, and Hitler himself. Heydrich had a nasty "rumor" in his past: his father, a musician, may have been descended from Jews. This was never settled. However, due to this particular rumor, Heydrich's opponents felt they could control him. In actuality, it was easier to control an out of control Mercendes Benz. As soon as he could, Heydrich began collecting information on every one of his rivals about their family backgrounds (including Hitler's). It was his eventual determination that he would one day be the successor of "Der Fuhrer". Himmler, Hitler, and the others may have officially honored Heydrich as a national martyr, but in their own private moments they all were fully glad to see that he was dead and out of the way.

Their real reason for the massive retaliation was the fear of copycat plans. The Czechs who killed Heydrich were trained in London, and had Churchill's assent on their plot. No doubt, had they gotten away with it, plots against other Nazi big-wigs would have been set in motion. The retaliation was to remind the local populations that the Germans would not hesitate to depopulate them if anymore assassinations occurred. It was also a reminder to the Allies that if they wanted to save lives they better not plan any further killings. As such it worked. Although several plans for an attack on Hitler were finally set up, none were ever put into operation (the 1944 bomb plot was by the German General staff, not by Churchill). Whether this was wise or not is a matter we cannot ever tell the answer to.

Heydrich's actual death is nothing like the hideous death camps he set up for Jews, Gypsies, Slavs. etc. But it still is somewhat pleasant to think of the agony of his last days, his spine broken by the steel springs of his exploded car seat. The affection that his title "Protector" supposedly suggested is truly shown by a story of how a German soldier desperately tried to get passers by to assist to help move the "Protector" to a nearby hospital quickly. An unknown Czech citizen looked at the dying man in the ruins of his Mercedes, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "The hospital is around the corner. He could walk there." Then he left the flustered soldier.