Hitler's Children (1943 film)

Last updated
Hitler's Children
Hitler's Children.jpg
Lobby card
Directed by
Written by Emmet Lavery
Based on Education for Death
by Gregor Ziemer
Produced byEdward A. Golden
Starring
Cinematography Russell Metty
Music by Roy Webb
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • March 19, 1943 (1943-03-19)
Running time
83 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$205,000 [1]
Box office$3,355,000 [1]

Hitler's Children is a 1943 American black-and-white war film made by RKO Radio Pictures. The film stars Tim Holt, Bonita Granville and Kent Smith and was directed by Edward Dmytryk from an adaptation by Emmet Lavery of Gregor Ziemer's book Education for Death . [2]

Contents

The film was among the most financially successful produced by RKO Studios. It is known for its portrayal of brutality associated with the Hitler Youth, represented particularly by two young participants.

Plot

In 1933 Berlin, Professor Nichols runs the American Colony School. It is next to the Horst Wessel School, where young Germans are indoctrinated into Nazism. During a brawl between the student bodies, Karl Bruner, a German youth born in the United States, objects when Anna Muller, an American citizen born in Germany, smacks him with her hockey stick. However, the two are attracted to each other. The professor, Anna, and Karl become good friends, though they do not agree politically. After a while, they lose touch with each other.

Six years later, as war looms in Europe, Karl Bruner, now a lieutenant in the Gestapo, removes students of foreign nationalities from the American school. Muller is also removed even though she is working there as an assistant teacher. Because she was born in Germany to German parents, the German government classifies her as German despite her American citizenship.

Nichols tries to find Muller, but the American consulate has no power and Muller's German grandparents are too frightened to help. Nichols' friend Franz Erhart, a formerly bold journalist who now fears being reported by his own children, suggests that the professor seek permission from the Ministry of Education to inspect a labor camp where Muller is likely being held. Nichols meets Gestapo Colonel Henkel and his aide and protégé Bruner. Henkel approves Nichols' request to visit Muller but, in private, Bruner tries to dissuade Nichols, insisting that Muller has now been converted to Nazi ideology. Bruner is disbelieving, but when he meets Muller at the camp she acts as if she is a true believer. After Nichols leaves, Bruner tells Muller that he has recommended her for an advanced geopolitik course at a German university. Muller reveals that she hates the system and has gone along with it because she has no choice.

When Muller is interviewed by Henkel and Dr. Graf of the education department, she furiously declines the opportunity, making her true feelings clear. She is sent back to the camp and demoted from the staff to a laborer position. When she persists in anti-Nazi behavior, Henkel orders that she be sterilized. When Bruner learns of this, he tries to persuade Muller to pretend to be a good Nazi and bear his child to prove her usefulness to Germany, but she refuses.

Muller flees the camp and reaches Berlin, where she hides in a church. A search party finds her and takes her away over the protests of the bishop. Henkel orders her to receive ten lashes and sends Bruner to witness her punishment. After she is whipped the second time, Bruner stops the action, although he knows that he has doomed himself and Muller.

Bruner pretends to have realized his mistake and recants. However, Henkel arranges for a national radio broadcast of the trial of Bruner and Muller and promises Karl full honors at his funeral. Professor Nichols is ordered to leave Germany immediately; if he does not, he will be arrested as an accessory to treason. At the airport, Nichols hears Karl's opening statement denouncing Hitler's Germany before the young man is shot and killed. Muller is shot and killed as she rushes to Karl.

Cast

Production

Tim Holt was offered the lead role, but when it seemed that he would be unavailable, Kent Smith was assigned. [3] However, Holt did play the lead role and Smith moved to a supporting role.

Originally Hitler's Children was directed by Irving Reis, but he fought with producer Edward A. Golden early into filming and resigned. [4] [5] Dmytryk, who has Reis "was rather headstrong and somewhat touchy" expected to receive an apology and be asked to return to the film but RKO asked Dmytryk to take over. He agreed, provided he was given Reis' blessing, which happened. [6]

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Bosley Crowther considered the melodrama to be "obvious, conventional" and noted: "Edward Dmytryk, who directed, has set the whole thing in an oratorical style and has given it the quality of a philippic rather than a credible story from life." [2]

Despite lukewarm critical reviews, Hitler's Children was a great financial success, earning RKO a profit of $1.21 million. [1] [7] [ page needed ] It was the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year and RKO's most successful film of the year. Dmytryk and writer Emmet Lavery were awarded $5,000 bonuses for their work. [8]

The film's great success led RKO to hire Dmytryk to direct other war films. He directed Back to Bataan, The Young Lions and the smash hit The Caine Mutiny . The last war film that he made was Anzio (1968). [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Dmytryk</span> American film director (1908–1999)

Edward Dmytryk was a Canadian-born American film director and editor. He was known for his 1940s noir films and received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for Crossfire (1947). In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their investigations during the McCarthy-era Red Scare. They all served time in prison for contempt of Congress. In 1951, however, Dmytryk testified to the HUAC and named individuals, including Arnold Manoff, whose careers were then destroyed for many years, to rehabilitate his own career. First hired again by independent producer Stanley Kramer in 1952, Dmytryk is likely best known for directing The Caine Mutiny (1954), a critical and commercial success. The second-highest-grossing film of the year, it was nominated for Best Picture and several other awards at the 1955 Oscars. Dmytryk was nominated for a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures.

<i>Education for Death</i> 1943 animated short film by Clyde Geronimi

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi is an American animated propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released on January 15, 1943, by RKO Radio Pictures, shown in theaters with Fighting Frontier. The film is directed by Clyde Geronimi and principally animated by Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas, and Bill Tytla. The short is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by American author Gregor Ziemer. The film features the story of Hans, a boy born and raised in Nazi Germany, his indoctrination in the Hitlerjugend, and his eventual march to war.

<i>Freedom Radio</i> 1941 British propaganda film directed by Anthony Asquith

Freedom Radio is a 1941 British propaganda film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard, Raymond Huntley and Derek Farr. It is set in Nazi Germany during the Second World War and concerns an underground German resistance group who run a radio station broadcasting against the totalitarian Third Reich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonita Granville</span> American actress and producer (1923–1988)

Bonita Gloria Granville Wrather was an American actress and producer.

<i>Murder, My Sweet</i> 1944 film directed by Edward Dmytryk

Murder, My Sweet is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley. The film is based on Raymond Chandler's 1940 novel Farewell, My Lovely. It was the first film to feature Chandler's primary character, the hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe.

<i>Holocaust</i> (miniseries) 1978 American television miniseries directed by Marvin J. Chomsky

Holocaust (1978) is an American television miniseries which aired on NBC over four nights, from April 16 — April 19, 1978.

<i>Hitlers SS: Portrait in Evil</i> 1985 American television film

Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil is a 1985 American made-for-television war drama film about two German brothers, Helmut and Karl Hoffmann, and the paths they take during the Nazi regime. The movie was directed by Jim Goddard and starred John Shea, Bill Nighy, Tony Randall, David Warner and John Woodnutt. The film shows Karl, who was originally enthusiastic about the Nazi Party, becoming disillusioned and Helmut, who was at first wary of the Nazi Party, joining the Schutzstaffel (SS) and later being an accomplice to war crimes.

<i>Tender Comrade</i> 1943 film by Edward Dmytryk

Tender Comrade is a 1943 black-and-white film released by RKO Radio Pictures, showing women on the home front living communally while their husbands are away at war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregor Ziemer</span> American screenwriter

Gregor Athalwin Ziemer was an American educator, writer, and correspondent. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1922 with an English degree. Ziemer lived in Germany from 1928 to 1939, during which time he served as the headmaster of the American School in Berlin. After fleeing Germany, Ziemer returned to his wife Edna's hometown of Lake City, Minnesota. Ziemer wrote a couple of notable books about Nazi society: Education for Death, which inspired the eponymous Disney short, and, more directly, Edward Dmytryk's movie Hitler's Children, as well as, along with his daughter Patricia, Two Thousand and Ten Days of Hitler.

<i>Back to Bataan</i> 1945 film by Edward Dmytryk

Back to Bataan is a 1945 American black-and-white World War II war film drama from RKO Radio Pictures, produced by Robert Fellows, directed by Edward Dmytryk, that stars John Wayne and Anthony Quinn. The film depicts events that took place after the Battle of Bataan (1941–42) on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The working title of the film was The Invisible Army.

<i>Once Upon a Honeymoon</i> 1942 film by Leo McCarey

Once Upon a Honeymoon is a 1942 romantic comedy/drama starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, and Walter Slezak, directed by Leo McCarey, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It was nominated for the Oscar for Best Sound Recording.

<i>Youth Runs Wild</i> 1944 film by Mark Robson

Youth Runs Wild is a 1944 B movie directed by Mark Robson and starring Bonita Granville, Kent Smith, Jean Brooks, Glen Vernon and Vanessa Brown. The plot concerns inattentive parents and juvenile delinquency. The film was produced by Val Lewton. It was written by John Fante, Herbert Kline and Ardel Wray. Although Val Lewton produced the film, the final released version was so different from the original cut that he asked for his name to be removed from the picture; a request denied him by RKO.

<i>Tarzan Triumphs</i> 1943 film by Wilhelm Thiele

Tarzan Triumphs is a 1943 adventure film in which Tarzan fights the Germans during World War II. Johnny Weissmuller had portrayed the Edgar Rice Burroughs character in six films with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but this was his first with the producer Sol Lesser at RKO Pictures. Lesser had previously produced Tarzan the Fearless and Tarzan's Revenge. Weissmuller was reunited with two of his three co-stars from several of the earlier films, Johnny Sheffield and Cheeta, but Maureen O'Sullivan was unable to reprise her role as Jane because the franchise switched from MGM to RKO, and O'Sullivan was an MGM contract player. Instead, Frances Gifford played the princess of the lost city of Palandrya, which is conquered by Germans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Kosleck</span> German actor (1904–1994)

Martin Kosleck was a German film actor. Like many other German actors, he fled when the Nazis came to power. Inspired by his deep hatred of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, Kosleck made a career in Hollywood playing villainous Nazis in films. While in the United States, he appeared in more than 80 films and television shows in a 46-year span. His icy demeanor and piercing stare on screen made him a popular choice to play Nazi villains. He portrayed Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister, five times, and also appeared as an SS trooper and a concentration camp officer.

<i>Behind the Rising Sun</i> (film) 1943 film by Edward Dmytryk

Behind the Rising Sun is a 1943 American war film based on the 1941 book Behind the Rising Sun written by James R. Young. Later-blacklisted Edward Dmytryk directed the film, and it stars Margo, Tom Neal, J. Carrol Naish, Robert Ryan and Gloria Holden.

<i>Passport to Destiny</i> 1944 film by Ray McCarey

Passport to Destiny is a 1944 RKO Radio Pictures war film, starring Elsa Lanchester as an English charwoman who, believing herself invulnerable by being protected by a magic eye amulet, travels to Nazi Germany to personally assassinate Adolf Hitler.

<i>Hitlerjunge Quex</i> (film) 1933 film

Hitlerjunge Quex, in English Hitler Youth Quex, is a 1933 German film directed by Hans Steinhoff, based on the similarly named 1932 novel Der Hitlerjunge Quex by Karl Aloys Schenzinger. The film was shown in the US under the title Our Flag Leads Us Forward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RKO Pictures</span> American film production and distribution company

RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA executive David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone, and in early 1929 production began under the RKO name. Two years later, another Kennedy concern, the Pathé studio, was folded into the operation. By the mid-1940s, RKO was controlled by investor Floyd Odlum.

<i>Government Girl</i> 1943 film by Dudley Nichols

Government Girl is a 1943 American romantic-comedy film, produced and directed by Dudley Nichols and starring Olivia de Havilland and Sonny Tufts. Based on a story by Adela Rogers St. Johns, and written by Dudley Nichols and Budd Schulberg, the film is about a secretary working in Washington for the war administration during World War II who helps her boss navigate the complex political machinations of government in an effort to build bomber aircraft for the war effort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Porter</span> American actress (1922–2018)

Bennie Jean Porter was an American film and television actress. She was notable for her roles in The Youngest Profession (1943), Bathing Beauty (1944), Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945), Till the End of Time (1946), Cry Danger (1951), and The Left Hand of God (1955).

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jewel, Richard. "RKO Film Grosses: 1931–1951." Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 14, No 1, 1994, p. 41.
  2. 1 2 Crowther, Bosley. "Review: 'Hitler's Children', fictionalized version of 'Education for Death,' makes its appearance at the Paramount Theatre." The New York Times, February 25, 1943.
  3. ↑ "Screen News Here and in Hollywood". The New York Times. September 17, 1942. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  4. 1 2 Stafford, Jeff. "Articles: 'Hitler's Children'." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: August 10, 2016.
  5. ↑ Hedda Hopper Says: "New Picture Brings Fame to Producer" Los Angeles Times 28 Mar 1943: C2.
  6. ↑ Dmytryk, Edward (1978). It's a hell of a life, but not a bad living. p. 55.
  7. ↑ Jewell 2016
  8. ↑ Jewell and Harbin 1982, p. 181.

Bibliography

  • Jewell, Richard B. Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2016. ISBN   978-0-5202-8966-6.
  • Jewell, Richard B. and Vernon Harbin. The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1982. ISBN   978-0-5175-4656-7.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.