HITLER'S SS: PORTRAIT IN EVIL

UK, 1985, 150 minutes, Colour.
John Shea, Bill Nighy, Lucy Guttredge, David Warner, Warren Clarke, Michael Elphick, Robert Urquhart, Stratford Johns, Carroll Baker, Jose Ferrer, Tony Randall, John Normington,
Directed by Jim Goddard.

Hitler's SS : Portrait in Evil is a lengthy telemovie tracing action in Germany from 1931 to the end of World War Two. Written by veteran Lucas Heller (who collaborated with director Robert Aldrich) and directed by English director Jim Goddard (television series, Parker), the film is designed to communicate something of the history of the SS to the television audience. In fact, the screenplay is tailored to the widest possible audience - offering information, television style characters rather than detailed exploration of the SS and the issues of Nazi Germany. As such, it keeps audience interest and communicates issues by storytelling.

One of the difficulties with the film is the casting, a blend of British and American actors and actresses who speak in their own style along with some who attempt Germanic style accents. This is particularly the case of the two brothers, one of whom has an English accent, the other, American. However, if one can put this aside, the sketch of the period is of interest. Offbeat casting includes Tony Randall as a cabaret MC; David Warner repeats his role of Heydrich which he established in the mini-series Holocaust.

1. An interesting telemovie? History issues? Themes?

2. The television treatment: length, style? An overview of the period? Popular stories? The television treatment - brief highlighting of incidents and characters rather than exploration and depth? The feel of the period, the atmosphere? Germany in the '30s and '40s? Costumes and decor? prisons, concentration camps? Ordinary households?

4. The effect of the cast and its variety of international accents? The credibility?

5. The structure of the film: the period, the family, the two brothers, stances, interaction, the collapse of the Third Reich? The opening of the film with Hitlerian rhetoric and the fanaticism? Stuttgart as a typical city? The Germans with 'Sieg Heil'. The transition to Munich? To Berlin and the German fronts?

6. Audiences watching Germany and the Germans? The credibility of the rise of the Nazis? Political power, the Depression, poverty? The decadence of Germany in the 1930s? The desire for reform, control? The ambitions?

7. The focus on the Hoffmann family: the Baptism and Hans, the two brothers present? The focus on the parents? An ordinary family? Their place in Germany, attitudes towards the Mother? Her concern about her sons, her insight? newsreels? Hans as a Hitler youth member? The air raid and the death of the parents?

8. Three sons: the SA and the army; the SS and Hitler Youth?

9. The focus on Karl, his political stances and beliefs, his joining the SA, his belief in the unions? The encounter with the professor, issues, fighting to defend him? The accident with the unionist thrown down the stairs? The beginnings of disillusionment? The night of the Long Knives and the officer arrested, executed? Karl’s period in Dachau? His quiet after his release? His attachment to Mitzi and love for her? The death of the unionist and his going to the police? His being persuaded to go into the army? The farewell and the evening with Mitzi? The German soldiers on the Russian front, the experience of war? His New Year speech of disillusionment? Escape? In Ber1in, seeing Helmut, Mitzi? The deaths of his brothers? His survival?

10. Helmut and his liberal ideas, friendship with the Jewish professor, fighting for him? Going to Munich, the fencing training, the encounter with Heydrich, being persuaded by him, hope for the SS, his elitist self-confidence, the night of the Long Knives? His knowing of the Nazi methods? Covering up? Hoping that things would change? Concern for Karl and helping him out of prison, helping him out of prison, helping into the army? Subordinate officers and Heydrich and his asking him to select Dachau victims, pressures, corpses for Polish propaganda? His difficulties? Heydrich in Czechoslovakia, the extermination of the village of Lidice? Seeing the professor choose to go to the concentration camp? Growing disillusionment? The end of the war? Trying to persuade Hans to leave? His attempt to escape, his being run down? The end of an era?

11. Hans, the Hitler youth, his enthusiasm, watching the newsreels, his friends, accusing Helmut of being a coward, his death?

12. Her cabaret performances, Putzi and his cabaret MC satirical style, the cabaret atmosphere, period? Her romance with Helmut, with Karl? The visit to Russia? The finale in Berlin?

13. The portrait of the SA, Leadership, the officers, their arrogance, bullying the Jews in the streets? The set-up of the night of the Long Knives? Hitler's participation? The execution of the officers? Rohm and his inability to kill himself? The background of the homosexuality of the SA and Hitler's condemnation?

14. The SS and their ruthlessness, the contrast with the SA, the rise in power, the members, Heydrich's leadership, the Polish staged massacre and the influence of the SS, the propaganda films? The detested status of the SS?

15. Heydrich and his power, manipulation, his assassination? Poland, the propaganda film, the assassination in Czechoslovakia and the reprisals? Goebels and his attitudes, propaganda?

16. The portrait of the professor, his teaching the students, Jewish background? Accosted by the SA, the brothers fighting for him, the collapse, his not planning to leave Germany, Helmut buying some of his books? His final decision to leave, the soldier trying to persuade him to stay? His going to the concentration camp?

17. A portrait of a period through people? The experience of Nazi Germany and its impact in its time? Later? Continual fascination with the SS?