When Nazis Walked the Earth
The term “Nazi menace†slides easily off the tongue in this cynical age. It’s as if we don’t want to fully recognize how serious a threat to global domination the Third Reich was, or how difficult a process convincing the American public of that danger turned out to be.
A chunk of that convincing was done by Hollywood, and “America Awake! Hollywood and the Nazi Menace,†a fascinating and provocative new series about a little-seen corner of movie history, details the ways and means used to do it.
Opening Friday night at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and running concurrently with the museum’s groundbreaking “Exiles and Emigres†exhibition, “America Awake!†focuses on 16 of the roughly 120 anti-Nazi films the studios churned out in a brief span of years.
Some of these, ranging from Bette Davis in “Watch on the Rhine†and Orson Welles in “The Stranger†to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Foreign Correspondent†and Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,†are familiar enough. But as always with a series like this, it’s the lesser-known films that offer the most surprising and intense satisfactions.
The series appropriately begins with 1939’s Edward G. Robinson-starring “Confessions of a Nazi Spy,†the first of the studio anti-Reich films. Released two years before America’s entry into World War II, when public opinion was still in an isolationist mode, “Confessions,†though based on an actual case, faced serious challenges from both within and without the industry.
Opposition was so strong, in fact, that Warner Bros. engaged in unprecedented security arrangements during the shooting. Armed studio police guarded the set, the script was kept so secret many actors got their lines one day at a time and a dozen or so members of the cast and crew chose for safety’s sake to live on the Warners lot for the duration of the filming. The German government was furious with the finished product, threatening to ban all future pictures made by participants, and the film itself was forbidden in some 20 countries.
Made with a sense of urgency and not afraid to hype its message, “Confessions†is intent on warning Americans about the enemy overseas (“the bacteria of aggressive dictatorshipâ€) as well as the enemy within. Much energy is expended chastising citizens for being so naive that a German official can say with confidence, “the Americans are a very simple-minded people. Why use a wolf when a weasel will do?â€
The weasel who gets the call to spy is an arrogant, self-deluded German American layabout (Francis Lederer). He’s aided by a German functionary played by George Sanders, almost unrecognizable in what now looks like a punk haircut, complete with a fade, and a German American Bund leader who rails against “the chaos that breeds in democracy and social equality.†Government agent Robinson eventually gets on the case, and none too soon.
“Confessions’ †marriage of melodrama and high purpose set the tone for many of the anti-Nazi films to come. The studios took naturally to the opportunity to add a meaningful pedigree to familiar plot twists and feints, and the reality of the threat to the Western world added punch and passion to these films on all levels.
Seeing the anti-Nazi pictures en masse reveals other, quirkier similarities. They all featured endless “Heil Hitlers†and created considerable work for every accented actor in Hollywood, from gnarled Maria Ouspenskaya to hearty Sig Rumann. Sometimes these stars played the “good Germans,†whose existence the films were careful to acknowledge, sometimes rigid Nazis, totalitarian automatons who believed that “human feeling is a luxury a vital society can’t afford.â€
These Nazis, when they were married, also had a penchant for two-timing their spouses; whenever a devoted party member said, “Don’t wait up for me,†you could expect the worst. And both Nazis and their enemies had little regard for the abilities of women: “This is a man’s game†was a frequently heard sentiment on both sides of the ideological divide.
Perhaps most intriguing of all, given the continuing debate about when Americans found out about the existence of German concentration camps, is how often they were mentioned in these films. “You do not get out of Dachau that easily, it’s not like an American prison,†is a typical comment, and the prisoner referred to ended up dying of “acute appendicitis†even though his appendix had been removed years before.
That particular scenario comes from 1940’s “The Man I Married,†one of the festival’s key surprises. Like “Confessions,†it was made before America’s involvement in the war. According to the American Film Institute catalog, it had its name changed from “I Married a Nazi†and its theatrical run shortened after threats from officials in Germany to curtail the distribution of 20th Century Fox films in that country.
Yet “The Man I Married,†directed by contract director Irving Pichel, known for his “women’s pictures,†is a much subtler and sophisticated drama than “Confessions.†It follows a Manhattan art critic (Joan Bennett at her swankiest) as she visits Hitler’s Germany with her cosmopolitan, sophisticated German-born husband Eric (Lederer again).
Gradually, and completely believably, Eric becomes intrigued by the changes in the country he’d left behind. “This is the Germany I dreamed of,†he reports, adding later, “you can’t build a new world without people running wild.†The attentions of an attractive party zealot named Freda (Anna Sten) help things along and, some overacting by Lloyd Nolan as an American reporter aside, this is overall a prescient and involving drama.
A bit more on the timid side (it was set back in 1933) but still intriguing is 1940’s “The Mortal Storm,†glamorous MGM’s first venture into the anti-Nazi business directed by instinctive romantic Frank Borzage.
Made with some of the same cast members as Ernst Lubitsch’s delightful “The Shop Around the Corner†and shot the same year, “Mortal Storm†gave one of the screen’s perennially underappreciated romantic couples, James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, another chance to charm audiences.
She plays Freya Roth, the daughter of a distinguished professor (Frank Morgan) whose career collapses because he is “non-Aryan.†The rise of the party also splits Freya from her true-believing brothers (Robert Stack plays one) and her fiance, a fire-breathing Nazi stalwart played by, of all people, Robert Young. You’ll never think of “Father Knows Best†the same way after this. Thank God Stewart’s instinctive humanitarian is on hand to pick up the slack.
Judging by titles alone, one of the more bizarre double bills of the series is “Hitler’s Children†and “Hitler’s Madman,†both from 1943. The latter, the first American film by Douglas Sirk, is best remembered for John Carradine’s performance as Nazi sadist Reinhard Heydrich, the picture of haughty, cadaverous, practically reptilian evil.
“Hitler’s Children†is no modest drama either. It details an ill-fated romance between a peppery American gal (Bonita Granville) and a robotized storm trooper (Tim Holt). Most spooky is a parade of police state horrors, including the shameless breeding of illegitimate children for the glory of the Fatherland. Director Edward Dmytryk will be present when the film screens on April 19.
The other film with a personal appearance attached is another festival surprise, 1944’s “None Shall Escape.†Set in a postwar future at an imaginary Nuremberg-type trial, “Escape’s†intricate flashback style, which earned an Oscar nomination for best original story, makes a thoughtful, almost philosophical attempt at trying to understand the origins of Nazism while being notably candid about its horrors. Director Andre de Toth will introduce a newly struck print of the film at its April 18 screening.
In the context of all this serious work, a final word must be said about “To Be or Not to Be,†Lubitsch’s brilliant 1942 comedy starring Jack Benny as the greatest Shakespearean actor in Poland and Carole Lombard as the wife he’s not sure he can trust. Too daring in its willingness to find humor where no one else ventured to be a success in its day, it stands now as a classic American screen comedy and a side-splitting example of the unexpected heights anti-Nazi films could reach if only their creators had the daring and the skill to make the journey.
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* Bing Theater, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. The schedule: Friday, “Confessions of a Nazi Spy†and “All Through the Nightâ€; Saturday, “Foreign Correspondent†and “Watch on the Rhineâ€; April 11, “The Mortal Storm†and “So Ends Our Nightâ€; April 12, “To Be or Not to Be†and “The Great Dictatorâ€; April 18, “None Shall Escape†and “Hangmen Also Dieâ€; April 19, “Hitler’s Children†and “Hitler’s Madmanâ€; April 25, “The Man I Married†and “The Strangerâ€; April 26, “Northern Pursuit†and “The House on 92nd Street.†All screenings begin at 7:30 p.m. $4-$6. (213) 857-6010.
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