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1973 British film
Hitler: The Last Ten Days is a 1973 biographical drama film depicting the days leading up to Adolf Hitler's suicide. The film stars Alec Guinness and Simon Ward, and features an introduction presented by Alistair Cooke; the original music score was composed by Mischa Spoliansky. The film is based on the book Hitler's Last Days: An Eye-Witness Account (first translated in English in 1973) by Gerhard Boldt,[4] an officer in the German Army who survived the Führerbunker.
The film opens with Hitler's 56th birthday, on 20 April 1945, and ends 10 days later with his suicide, on 30 April. Hitler becomes angry with Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, General Alfred Jodl, Wilhelm Burgdolf, Hans Krebs and Party Secretary Martin Bormann when Steiner and his German Forces fail to attack the Soviet Forces led by Georgy Zhukov. Hitler had hoped the result would mirror the 7 Years war led by Frederick the Great against Elizabeth and Peter the Third of Russia. Hitler is told by Joseph Goebbels that Hermann Goring, Heinrich Himmler and Albert Speer have betrayed him and are fleeing Germany. Hitler executes his future brother-in-law General Hermann Fegelein, married to Eva Braun’s sister Gretl Braun, just as Benito Mussolini executed his son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano in Italy. Hitler commits suicide with his wife, hoping to die as a hero to his country.
Location shooting for the film included the De Laurentiis Studios in Rome and parts of England.[citation needed]
The film opened in 26 theatres in West Germany on the anniversary of Hitler's birth on 20 April 1973, which led to several groups objecting to the film. Initially, the movie was a moderate success at the box office.[5]
Bernard Delfont wrote in his memoirs that he saw the film at a charity screening and felt it was too sympathetic to Hitler. Although his cinema chain was to distribute it he cancelled the movie.[6]
In its first nine days at the Empire, Leicester Square in London, the film grossed £17,860 ($41,971).[7]
Critical reception[edit]Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film was "about as exciting as a high-minded, parent-approved comic book about the adventures of James Watt and his steam engine":
The film doesn't seem to have been directed, or acted, as much as cast, in the waxworks sense. Actors play individual characters not because they are actors but because they resemble the people in life. Sometimes, however, they look very wrong. Adolfo Celi looks awfully Italian as General Krebs. Guinness looks right as Hitler, and that's about all — but then Hitler may be an impossible role. Almost anything even a good actor does with such a role risks prompting a certain amount of unintended hilarity. (There are times when Guinness's Hitler reminded me most of Jack Benny.)[8]
The film was released on DVD on 3 June 2008,[9] and was released on Blu-ray in September 2015.[10]
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