National Socialist Cinema at Filmarchiv Austria
by Andre Soares
“It’s so important to reflect, even on your darkest moments,” says Thomas Ballhausen, head of Filmarchiv Austria’s library and studies department. “Let’s talk straight about these things.”
The “things” Ballhausen is referring to are the films made in Vienna — or Hitler’s Hollywood — and in Germany during the 1930s and early 1940s. Those were often propaganda films disguised as escapist comedies, dramas, and musicals, much like what was being done in Hollywood at the time. Except, of course, that the heroes of those films were Nazis and/or assorted members of the Aryan race.
Among the films currently being screened under the banners “Hitler’s Hollywood” and “National Socialism Propaganda Films” are: Der Alte und der junge König / The Old and the Young King (1935), which stars Academy Award winner Emil Jannings (left) and Leopoldine Konstantin (billed as Madame Konstantin in Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious); Ein Leben lang (1940), starring Paula Wessely and Nazi victim Joachim Gottschalk (in 1941, unable to leave the country, Gottschalk committed suicide, along with his Jewish wife and their nine-year-old son); and Patrioten / Patriots (1937), which stars the Czech actress LÁda Baarová (top photo), one time lover of ardent “family values” promoter and Minister of Propaganda Josef Goebbels – who, by the way, happened to be married at the time of the affair.
Also, Eduard von Borsody’s Wunschkonzert / Request Concert (1940), starring Ilse Werner and Carl Raddatz (above), a dreary romantic melodrama of interest because of its stupefyingly belligerent finale; and one of the most infamous films in the history of motion pictures, Veit Harlan’s rabidly anti-Semitic box-office hit Jud Süss / Jew Süss (1940), the (bastardized) tale of a greedy Jewish man who rapes an Aryan woman, played by the popular Swedish actress Kristina Söderbaum.
The Filmarchiv will also show a series of films under the banner “Hollywood Against Hitler,” including the (then) daring (but now quite dated) 1939 Warner Bros. production Confessions of a Nazi Spy (above), which depicts Nazi infiltration in the United States — among Americans — and starring Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, and Paul Lukas; André de Toth’s rarely seen None Shall Escape (nominated for a best original story Oscar in 1945), with Alexander Knox and Marsha Hunt; the equally little-seen Hostages (1943), directed by Frank Tuttle, and starring Luise Rainer; and Fritz Lang’s Hangmen Also Die! (1943), from a screenplay by Lang and Bertolt Brecht, and starring Brian Donlevy.
The festival ends on May 1.
Last Call for Nazi-Occupied France
Norman Corwin and Daniel Johnston in Hollywood
Comments
Leave a Reply
Note: All comments are moderated. Different views and opinions are welcome, but abusive/bigoted/flaming comments will NOT be approved. Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has NO contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog or any information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
