42 Ways to Kill Hitler (2008) (TV)

Director:

Jon Taylor

Writer:

Jon Taylor

Release Date:

16 November 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

National Geographic looks in some detail at 6 of the many close brushes with death Adolph Hitler had at the hands of assassins. The potential for the plots to succeed are examined as is the unpleasant fate of the would be assassins. |

Plot Keywords:

Guillotine | Walthers Ppk | Reenactment | Brandy | Reference To Claus Von Stauffenberg

Cast

Erik Thompson	...	Narrator
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jason Bice	...	German Army Staff Officer
John Degaetano
Scott DeGrave	...	German Army General Staff Officer
Audie Foote	...	Chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe
Arlo Hemphill	...	Adolf Hitler
A.J. Hunt	...	Gestapo Interrogator
Karl Mossberger
Brian Noyes
Alden Olmsted
Jim Rufini
Don Schwartz
John L. Stokes	...	Lt. von Schlabrendroff (as John Stokes)
Eric Swartz	...	Generaloberst Ludwig Beck
Will Thorn	...	Maurice Bavaud (as William Thorn)
Scott Weiss	...	Georg Elser
Mike White	...	Stenographer
Matt Witthaus
Melody Crawford	...	Eva Braun (uncredited)
Janine King	...	Screaming Woman (uncredited)
Jay Lance	...	Hermann Fegelein (uncredited)

Directed by
Jon Taylor

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jon Taylor

Produced by
Evan Cecil	....	producer
David M. Frank	....	executive producer
David M. Frank	....	series producer
Chris Leavell	....	producer
Chris Leavell	....	supervising producer
Jon Taylor	....	producer

Cinematography by
Randall Love
Kit Tyler

Film Editing by
Stephen McConelly
Steve McConnell

Casting by
Lori Laube

Makeup Department
Lisa Zomer	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Hanna Bankier	....	production manager
Greg Boudreaux	....	post-production supervisor
Melody Crawford	....	assistant production manager

Art Department
Courtney Casper	....	graphic designer

Sound Department
Erik Reimers	....	sound designer

Camera and Electrical Department
Gary Tomsic	....	camera operator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Ken Feragen	....	costumes
Jay Lance	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
Jose Mendoza III	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Megan Edelman	....	production assistant
Max Grater	....	production assistant
Joel Heaps	....	production assistant
Jay Lance	....	armorer
Jay Lance	....	historical & military consultant

Production Companies

• Indigo Films
• Off the Fence (in association with)

Distributors

• Bright Vision Entertainment (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• National Geographic Channel (2008) (USA) (TV)
• National Geographic (2008) (USA) (TV)
• Off the Fence (2008) (worldwide) (all media)

Other Companies

• American Eagle Studios  casting

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Indigo Films

Making failure exciting.

It isn't in the least surprising to find out that there were forty-two attempts to kill Hitler. The only surprise is that there weren't more. As John D. Gresham (a weapons and assault expert) points out, if someone is going to be a professional bad guy all his life, this is expected.

Gresham is only one of the speakers. As expected in this type of documentary, the film is littered with interesting speakers: historians, writers, military experts and so on. All provide interesting viewpoints but what really brings the film to life is the re-creation of the attempts. Even though from the offset you know that all the assassination attempts failed, while watching you tend to keep forgetting that and you say things like "This attempt looks so good. I wonder if it's going to succeed." I think the excitement created by these re-creations is the film's strongest point. You half expect the narrator to suddenly say that one of the attempts succeeded.

The negative is the little time that some of the attempts are given. Before you even know it, you find yourself in attempt 20 and this can make the film feel a bit rushed at times. You wonder if you're missing out on important information. One assumes this happened for a number of reasons. 1) This was originally shown on television so it must have had some time constraints. 2) There are attempts on which there isn't much to say because there isn't much information available or simply because the attempts were not very good or very well planned.

This is a good film. It makes you wonder whether history would have been different if one of those many attempts had succeeded. After watching this you will conclude one thing; that Hitler was a very lucky man. Some of the attempts are truly amazing and extremely well planned by very skilled individuals and it's nothing short of a miracle that Hitler survived all of them.