The Last Ten Days (1955)
"Der letzte Akt" (original title)

Director:

Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Writers:

Fritz Habeck, Michael A. Musmanno (novel),

Stars:

Albin Skoda, Oskar Werner, Lotte Tobisch

Cast

Credited cast:
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
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Herta Angst	...	Jutta Brinkmann, 13jähr. Tochter
Helene Arcon	...	Hanna Reitsch / Flugkapitän

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

suicide | berlin germany | entrapment | german history | german army | 

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Taglines:

From Heil to Hell!...

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Genres:

Drama | History | War

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Details

Country:

West Germany Austria

Language:

German

Release Date:

16 September 1955 (Belgium)

Also Known As:

The Last Ten Days

Filming Locations:

Baden, Lower Austria, Austria

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cosmopol-Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Traudl Junge, Adolf Hitler's "last" secretary, was interviewed by Michael Mussmano several times; part of her recollections were included in his "Ten Days to Die" from which this film is adapted. In Junge's memoirs, "Until The Final Hour," she says that Mussmano helped arrange for her to spend two weeks in Austria advising the director during filming, for which she was paid DM1500.

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Connections

Featured in Österreich - Unser Jahrhundert: Große Kunst im kleinen Land (1999)

User Reviews

The Last Ten Days of Adolph Hitler

I saw this obscure German film in Toronto in 1956, my first exposure to Oskar Werner. A "sleeper" of a movie for me, but so long ago and it seems never to be seen again. The topic has been treated many times but never, I think, to such effect. The last days in the bunker are entirely through the wondering subjective eyes of Werner, as Captain Wuest, a rather unimportant guardsman. Hitler and his henchmen are always kept at a distance, the way Wuest views them from his station, and what stands out in my memory is the finale of a drunken champagne party as though in celebration of something, but in reality as their means to forget the impending doom looming ahead as the Russians can be heard closing in. The problem with films portraying famous or infamous people is that they are almost always unbelievable because we are unwilling to suspend our disbelief, aware that they are actors up there trying to imitate the unknowable. Here, at least for the English speaking audience, the problem does not arise, we understand only through subtitles, and we hear the characters speaking in their own language. And, thank God, it is in black and white. The impact of the film stays with me still, and of course, Werner was a major revelation.