Hitler: The Last Ten Days
by Ennio de Concini
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adolfo Celi, Alec Guinness, Diane Cilento, Gabriele Frezetti, Simon WardDirector: Ennio de Concini
Brand: LEG
Cinematographer: Ennio Guarnieri
Composer: Mischa Spoliansky
Editor: Kevin Connor
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-06-03
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: LF00120
Studio: Legend Films
Product features:
- Hitler: The Last Ten Days is cinema at its most powerful. Oscar winner Alec Guinness portrays the dictator in one of his most memorable performances. Spanning the final days from Hitler's 56th birthday to his death, this unflinching peek into the bunker shows us the downfall of a madman. Guinness explores every facet of the challenging role and Doris Kunstmann co-stars as doomed mistress Eva B
Movie Reviews of Hitler: The Last Ten Days
Movie Review: My Favorite Hitler
Summary: 5 Stars
Alec Guinness is my all-time "favorite Hitler" in this very entertaining film. AG is an extremely gifted character actor and he pulls out all the stops in this marvelous performance. I say the movie is entertaining because some of the scenes amount to sly parodies of the personalities & situations involved. I can't really say for sure if the director planned it that way like the "Springtime for Hitler" theme in THE PRODUCERS.
The editing is a little "jerky" at times, but it works because, after all, the whole movie takes place in Hitler's underground bunker in Berlin. The entire city was under constant Allied bombing. To some extent the editing also conveys a "home movie" feel to the production.
Another factor that enhances this "peek into the past" genre of HITLER is that certain scenes & speeches are juxtaposed with actual archival footage of the War. Often this is done in counterpoint. For example, the movie Hitler will be "predicting" that the Russian & Allied Forces will clash & turn against each other before they get any closer to the bunker. This tirade is montaged with archival film that shows these forces meeting, yes--but East & West embrace & there's singing & dancing & drinking & just general comradship. Hitler is wrong...again.
One of the humorous scenes--and forgive me if I don't name most of the characters: Hitler has summoned a Luftwaffer general back to Berlin because he (Hitler) has become paranoid of the people in his inner circle (for the exception of his secretaries & Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda.) Now this was an insane request not only because the general was needed where he was, but he--and his lover--almost got shot down before landing near the bunker. His lover is a female flying Ace and a Nazi fanatic as well. When she & the general sit down with Hitler for de-briefing, she can't take her eyes off Eva Braun. Later when she's alone with one of the secretaries she says, "What does he see in her? You can't mean that they actually..." The secretary knowingly nods and the lady flyer exclaims, "But she's so bourgeois!"
Later Hitler throws a small birthday party for the inner circle. As party favors, he hands out little boxes of cyanide capsules. The group begins to fantasize about their impending suicide. The lady flyer says that she and her flyer lover plan to soar over enemy lines & release a hand grenade between the two as they engage in their last embrace. All the guests Woo! & Aah! in approval. The Cook says that she plans to stick her head in the oven. One of the guests says, "But, Frau Cook, the kitchen is all electric." The Cook replies, "Then I'll electrocute myself!"
Diane Cilento turns in an excellent performance as Hitler's long time mistress. She is pretty, fun-loving, loyal, sympathetic--and rather vaporous. While Hitler withdraws with a secretary to compose his Last Testament, Eva fulfills her role as hostess by putting on black face make-up & singing "When You're Smiling" in an obvious Marlene Dietrich style. In the end she is a pathetic figure who has blithely allowed herself to be used as Hitler's doormat. It's true that he married her before the very end, but the ceremony is grotesque. When she and her brand new husband go into their private room to kill themselves, Hitler starts ranting about how he knew the war was lost in 1943 with the fiasco of Stalingrad. For the first time Eva hesitantly confronts Hitler. "You knew two years ago...then why did all those people have to die?" Hitler has his back to her and immediately becomes abusive, screaming about her being nothing more than a stupid woman, a cow, etc. Then he turns to face her--and she's dead.
While the walls are literally falling down all around them, Hitler pedantically muses about everything from vegetarianism to his conviction that Wagnerian opera singers should perform in the nude. It is a maudlin, morose & ridiculous Hitler, but there is menace & malice as well. Actors are often taught that if they play an evil character, they should find at least one good quality to portray. I think Guinness must have had an almost impossible job of trying to do that. His Hitler is a totally self-obsessed, evil buffoon without one iota of insight. I think Alec Guiness really nailed the S.O.B.
Kind Hearts and Coronets - Criterion Collection A MUST SEE-JEF
Hitler - The Rise of Evil
Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich
Hitler and the Occult
Richard and Adolf: Did Richard Wagner Incite Adolf Hitler to Commit the Holocaust?
The Damned ANOTHER MUST SEE!!!-JEF
The Producers (Deluxe Edition)
Summary of Hitler: The Last Ten Days
Hitler: The Last Ten Days is cinema at its most powerful. Oscar® winner Alec Guinness portrays the dictator in one of his most memorable performances. Spanning the final days from Hitler's 56th birthday to his death, this unflinching peek into the bunker shows us the downfall of a madman. Guinness explores every facet of the challenging role and Doris Kunstmann co-stars as doomed mistress Eva Braun.Similar DVD Movies
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