Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil (1985) (TV)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Jim Goddard

Writer:

Lukas Heller (writer)

Release Date:

17 February 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

The story of Helmut and Karl Hoffmann. Both come of age at the start of Hitler's power in Germany. Helmut...

Plot Keywords:

Brother | Third Reich | SS | Hitler | Germany

Cast

John Shea	...	Karl Hoffmann
Bill Nighy	...	Helmut Hoffmann
Lucy Gutteridge	...	Mitzi Templer (nightclub singer)
David Warner	...	Reinhard Heydrich
Warren Clarke	...	Becker (SS assistant to Dietrich)
Michael Elphick	...	Ernst Röhm (SA Chief)
Stratford Johns	...	Uncle Walter (bartender)
Robert Urquhart	...	Albrecht Hoffman
José Ferrer	...	Prof. Ludwig Rosenberg
Carroll Baker	...	Gerda Hoffman
Tony Randall	...	Putzi (the comedian)
John Normington	...	Heinrich Himmler
Derek Newark	...	Theodor Eicke
Paul Brooke	...	Gen. Josef Biegler, SA
Colin Jeavons	...	Adolf Hitler

Runtime:

Norway:150 min | USA:135 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 (video premiere)

Filming Locations:

Germany

Company:

Metromedia Productions

Trivia:

David Warner reprised his role of SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, whom he previously portrayed in "Holocaust" (1978).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In long shots of the Sturmabteilung headquarters, the first car from the left parked in front is a Mercedes-Benz built in the early 1950s.

Quotes:

Helmutt Hoffmann: Well, who needs Revolutionaries when the Revolution has already been achieved?

Normally Abnormal

Welcome to a world of lunacy where the horror is the transparent normalcy of those who buy into the nightmare. Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil tracks the lives of two brothers Karl Hoffmann and Helmut Hoffmann who take opposing views on the new idea of National Socialism sweeping the country; one is violently opposed; the other believes Germany can harness the energy but that the extremes and excesses can be controlled by people of character from within.

The main story line in Hitler's SS is nicely complemented by an excellent performance by Tony Randall as the stand-up comedian a left-over from freer Weimar days. He may be too lost in the bottle to tell the difference but he does his bit for The Fatherland in the equivalent of USO tours on the frigid Eastern Front.Yet his sense of humour and timing are always impeccable as he reminds the other Deutchers drowning their sorrows in the bottle during an Allied bombing raid of Hermann Goerings' pledge in 1940 that the Luftwaffe would intercept Any Allied Bombers, "Meyer, Meyer my name is Meyer." A pity the Gestapo did not share the sense of humor.