Hitler's Madman (1943)

Director:

Douglas Sirk

Writers:

Peretz Hirschbein (writer)
Albrecht Joseph (story)

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:

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

Also Known As:

Hitler's Hangman

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

Trivia:

Although this film was originally filmed by poverty-row studio Producers Releasing Corp. (PRC), the word got out in Hollywood that the picture was far and away the best thing PRC had ever done; eventually MGM executives got a look at it, were suitably impressed, bought it from PRC and it was released as an MGM picture.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust (2004)

Really does not do justice to the historic assassination of Heydrich.

This film story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (titled by the Nazis as Reichs Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, by the Czechs as "The Hangman", and also one of the architects of "The Final Solution")and of the subsequent annihilation of the village of Lidice by the Nazis, really does not do justice to the subject. Although released by MGM, it was actually produced by poverty row Producer Releasing Corporation (PRC). Some of the cast members are old familiars and rather good, but none give a feeling that these are Czechs being murdered by Hitler's minions. As war propaganda, it is a success, and it at least gives the spirit of the tragedy of Lidice, if not historically detailed facts. John Carradine is effective as Heydrich, especially in his deathbed scene.

The facts about the assassination briefly are that two Czech partisans were parachuted into Czechoslovakia from an RAF plane. They managed to ambush Heydrich's open Mercedes, throw a bomb under it, and escape to a church. Heydrich died a few days later from complications arising from the penetration of his spleen by bomb fragments and debris from the car upholstery. Using torture, the Nazis discovered the whereabouts of the two partisans and the SS killed them at once. Lidice was picked more or less at random from among villages known to have anti-German leanings. On Hitler's orders, the men were shot and the women and children removed to camps, while the buildings of the site were levelled. When it became known in the allied world, this made excellent anti-Nazi propaganda, and more than one film was made of the subject. It may be that the massive retaliation backfired somewhat on the Nazis also by stiffening Czech resistance to the occupation.