Nuremberg Trials (1947)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

S. Svilov

Writer:

B. Gorbatova (writer)

Release Date:

24 May 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History | War

Plot Keywords:

Newsreel Footage | WWII | War Crime | Corpse | Holocaust

Cast

Francis Biddle	...	Himself
Karl Dönitz	...	Himself
Henri Donnedieu de Vabres	...	Himself
Robert Falco	...	Himself
Hans Frank	...	Himself
Wilhelm Frick	...	Himself
Josef Goebbels	...	Himself (archive footage)
Hermann Göring	...	Himself
Rudolf Hess	...	Himself
Heinrich Himmler	...	Himself (archive footage)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage)
Robert Jackson	...	Himself
Alfred Jodl	...	Himself
Sir Geoffery Lawrence	...	Himself
Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe	...	Himself
Ion T. Nikitchenko	...	Himself
John J. Parker	...	Himself
Erich Raeder	...	Himself
Alfred Rosenberg	...	Himself
Roman Rudenko	...	Himself
Fritz Sauckel	...	Himself
Hjalmar Schacht	...	Himself
Arthur Seyss-Inquart	...	Himself
Albert Speer	...	Himself
Julius Streicher	...	Himself
Aleksandr F. Volchkov	...	Himself
Konstantin von Neurath	...	Himself
Joachim von Ribbentrop	...	Himself
Baldur von Schirach	...	Himself

Runtime:

USA:58 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Central Documentary Film Studio

Preachy and heavy handed look at the trials of the Nazi leaders

Soviet produced look at the trials that followed the fall of Germany.

Deadly serious, this film is almost too somber to be taken with a straight face since the narration often comes across as rather preachy and purple. Its pure propaganda in the "we were right to try these people" sort of way and is clearly biased against the defendants who had just set Europe aflame. The take is rather odd and unlike any thing that I've run across in American or in Western European films on the same subject. It seems to be trying to over explain why the leaders of Germany were tried, which in retrospect is painfully obvious. Its clear from the lean toward the Soviet take of events and of its lingering on the speeches by the Soviet prosecutors who was behind the film. Its not bad but the heavy handedness of the presentation becomes wearing after a while.

If you keep in mind when the film was made its an intriguing look at how the events were viewed during their own historical period. However its probably too long at an hour, with its ponderous preaching taking away from any value the film might have had.