The Magic Face
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Magic Face |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1951 |
| length | 88 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Frank Tuttle |
| script |
Mort Briskin Robert Smith |
| production | Mort Briskin Robert Smith |
| music | Herschel Burke Gilbert |
| camera | Tony Braun |
| cut | Henriette Brünsch |
| occupation | |
| |
The Magic Face (in German: The Magic face ) is an American movie from 1951 by Frank Tuttle with Luther Adler in a dual role as a vaudeville artist and Adolf Hitler .
action
The introductory sentences are spoken by the US historian William L. Shirer , who is standing in front of the ruins of a house in Berlin and wants the viewer to believe that the subsequent film plot, film, may tell the real reasons for the German defeat in 1945. Germany, at the time of Adolf Hitler's Nazi rule . Rudi Janus, an entertainer who appears in variety shows and on theater stages as "The Great Janus", has a great talent: He is a voice imitator and can imitate a number of famous personalities, including Mussolini, Ethiopia's Haile Selassie and Hitler. One day in 1938, the year of the Anschluss of Austria , the “Führer” was in the audience at a performance in Vienna. He begins to be more interested in Mrs. Janus than Rudi can like and asks her to come to him. Hitler's adjutant Major Weinrich comes to the cloakroom to pick up Veras Janus. Rudi is fermenting, he doesn't want to let Vera go. Anyone who messes with the "Führer" will soon regret it bitterly, and so Rudi ends up promptly in prison. This is where his talent for voting comes in handy, because Rudi imitates his prison director, passes the guards unhindered and thus gets free.
Rudi wants to take revenge for the hardship he has suffered on the “Führer” and therefore seeks the proximity of Hitler's valet Wagner. He flatters him and even offers to give him the money for a longed-for emigration to America - all in order to inherit Wagner's position as Hitler's personal servant. In fact, the coup succeeds and Janus is hired as Vogel's valet. Janus discovers that his renegade wife Vera has become Hitler's lover. He fears that she will recognize him immediately, but in fact his mask is so good that Vera does not become suspicious. When Hitler plans to land in England with German troops in July 1940, Janus decides to take the final blow against the dictator and kill him before the worst can come. He brings Hitler down with a glass of poisoned milk. Then he instantly takes his position. The new fake Hitler orders the body of the dead real Hitler, whom he identifies as the actor Janus and whom he, Hitler, met in Vienna in 1938, to be cremated immediately.
From now on, the new "Hitler" made fatal mistakes: he called off the attack on Great Britain, instead had his troops marched into the Soviet Union in 1941 and declared war on the USA at the end of the same year. His generality and the people around him, who knew the real Hitler well, are amazed at his personality change, but without consequences. When Hitler sacrifices General Paulus' 6th Army in Stalingrad, serious doubts about Hitler's understanding begin to arise in the generals. On July 20, 1944, an attempt was made to blow up Hitler at the Wolfsschanze headquarters. Major Weinrich, who has been so loyal to date, has also been privy to the attack. Even when the Allies land on the Normandy coast, Janus ensures that his "Hitler" makes catastrophic wrong decisions. When Weinrich discovers a cigarette from the non-smoker, the adjutant also remembers his meeting with Janus in Vienna in 1938. But his knowledge does not help him anymore, he is shot from behind. Meanwhile, Hitler's lover Vera Janus is becoming more and more desperate at the course of the war. She moved to Hitler's bunker in Berlin. In the face of approaching death, Hitler unmasked and becomes Rudi Janus again. His unfaithful wife screams in horror, runs away in panic and is killed by a grenade strike. Whether Janus, alias Hitler, will also perish is left open.
Production notes
The Magic Face was made in Austria (studio and outdoor recordings in Vienna) and was premiered on August 13, 1951 in the USA. The film was not shown in German-speaking countries.
The content of The Magic Face is based a little on the propaganda strips The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler, which were made eight years earlier in Hollywood . The opening credits read “as told to William Shirer”. At the beginning of the film, Shirer pretends to have had this story told by a woman in Vienna.
Eduard Stolba designed the film structures, Friedrich Erban took over the production management.
Immediately after this film, Luther Adler could be seen again as Hitler: In the A production Rommel, the desert fox, which also premiered in 1951 .
Reviews
In the New York Times , Bosley Crowther commented on the low probability of this story and then wrote, “The story is more than fantastic. The way in which it is played here under the unrestrained direction of Frank Tuttles is far from rational belief. Luther Adler, who portrays both the actor and the unmoured boss of the Third Reich, throws himself into this nonsense with the artificial seriousness of a little smear actor from the variety theater. "
The Movie & Video Guide found that the acting performance of the main character was "Eagle above the [cinematic] material".
Halliwell's Film Guide saw this B-flick as an “extremely amusing and improbable anecdote”, which was “presented with vigor”, but was “handicapped by an inferior production”.
Individual evidence
- ^ Review of October 1, 1951
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 805
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 635
Web links
- The Magic Face in the Internet Movie Database (English)