Hitler, Dead or Alive

Description

Three seasoned gangsters fresh out of Alcatraz take on a million dollar challenge - to assassinate Adolph Hitler. Led by tough guy Steve Maschik (Ward Bond) the bounty hunters, including Maschik's bumbling bodyguard, "Dutch" Havermann (Warren Hymer) and the "brains" of the trio - Joe "The Book" Conway (Paul Fix) - join the Canadian Air Force, commandeer a bomber and parachute into Germany just a few kilometers from Hitler's headquarters in Berlin. Teaming up with the anti-Nazi underground, the ex-cons are able to get close to Der Fuhrer... and the opportunity to fulfill their mission. Hollywood patriotism on display just as WWII was heating up. Review: "I've never done nothing smalltime in my life." - Hitler Dead or Alive (1942)...I really wasn't expecting a whole lot from this film, but it did present an interesting idea buried under a steaming pile composed of shrilly propaganda, shallow patriotism, and a plot more befitting a Three Stooges short. The idea I am referring to is could the assassination of Hitler have changed the course of history? Given that he was such a dominate and outspoken leader, one could speculate that his death could have effectively demoralized his followers and seriously crippled the Nazi war machine, but others would put forth that the void would have been filled by more competent leadership, effectively extending the war much longer than it lasted. Either way, the film only touches upon this briefly, before returning to wallow in its' own slightly charming, naiveté. Directed by Nick Grinde (The Captain's Kid, Jail Break), the film stars Ward Bond (It's a Wonderful Life, The Searchers). Also appearing is Warren Hymer (Destry Rides Again), Paul Fix (To Kill a Mockingbird), Dorothy Tree (Knute Rockne All American), Bruce Edwards (The Black Widow), and Bobby Watson (The Big Clock) as Der Fuhrer...a role he seemed relegated to (he played the same character in at least ten other films) during the last half of his career, until his death in 1965. Alright...here's the deal...a wealthy American advertises a $1,000,000 reward for Hitler's head (actually the deal stipulates dead OR alive, but that's pretty much meaningless as everyone knows it's easier to deal with a dead captive than a live one). This peaks the interest of recently paroled gangster Steve Maschick (Bond) and his two `associates' in Dutch (Hymer), who's your typical dumb muscle/repellent comedic type, and Joe (Fix), the smart, edjumacated one (he's small, wears glasses, and reads which means he's smart...get it?). After accepting the contract, the gang make their way to Canada, joins the Royal Canadian Air Force, makes their way to Europe, hijacks a plane (along with ace pilot Johnny Stevens, played by Edwards) to Germany, to which they parachute near one of Hitler's bases, steal a beer truck, get caught, thrown in prison, escape, meet up with an underground resistance group, and eventually masquerade as members of a musical quartet, infiltrating a small, official gathering with Der Fuhrer in attendance. Now all they have to do is cap their mark and collect the moolah...oh yeah, there's also the small matter of getting out of Germany with their skins intact, but that's a relatively trivial detail, especially if you bought the rest of this hokum. If you can turn a blind eye to the unbelievable nature of the plot, you might actually enjoy this odd little film. It would have helped had it been presented as a comedy (that's how it came off to me, but I'm sure it was unintentional on the filmmaker's part), especially when it came to depicting the Nazis as complete, bumbling idiots, who, by the way, sported some of the worst German accents I've ever heard `I haff vays of makings you talk!' (Check out the German eavesdropping on the cell after our plucky group gets captured for a great example of this). One of my favorite parts of the film was when the gang hijacked the plane, directed the pilot fly towards Germany, and, on learning a German fighter plane hot on their heels, Dutch goes to the door with a Tommy gun, proceeds to lean out and shoot the pursuing plane out of the sky (I was unaware those guns had such range, much less the accuracy). For me, the real comedy came in the form of the optimism within the gang with regards to the relative ease to which they believed they could complete their task. Were audiences of the day really so gullible as to buy this? I suppose given the fact the film came out so early with regards to America's entry into the war, there was a great deal of optimistic faith with our ability to deal with the situation, which changed to some degree as the war dragged on...oh yeah, I also really loved how relatively few of the German Soldiers picked up on the gang's American accents, accepting them as Nazis based solely on the fact they were sporting stolen Nazi uniforms and threw up the occasional `Heil' salute...I don't know, maybe the Nazis were depicted as being so moronic because that's what we wanted to believe, along with the fleeting hope that victory would come easy. The performances were entertaining, albeit completely unbelievable. Bond is most well known as a supporting character actor, appearing in a slew of legendary films such as those already mentioned, along with Gone with the Wind, The Maltese Falcon, and Mister Roberts, to name a few more, and carries the film in a rare starring role. His co-stars in Hymer and Fix were certainly no slouches either, all three appearing in some 600 plus films combined. Early on I had forgone any notion of realism and enjoyed the silliness, much like one would watching a Bowery Boys film, but the momentum dropped off severely as the story interjected a lethal dose of propaganda followed by a patriotic sledgehammer to the head illustrated by Dutch's impassioned declaration to the camera following the senseless slaughter of some village locals Pardon the pun, but this just seemed like overkill, presented just in case we weren't aware of how bad the Nazis really were...this tactic wasn't uncommon in films of the time, but few seemed as blatant, in my opinion. The picture quality on this Alpha DVD is very poor (grainy, washed out, age deterioration) followed up by a poor transfer (a few `pixalation' issues confined to the right side of the screen), but the audio was surprisingly decent. Extras include odd trailers for A Chronicle of Corpses (2000) and Magdalen (1998), along with a visual listing of other Alpha cheapie titles. If you liked this film, check out Cowboy Commandos (1943) for similar fun. Cookieman108 Review: Ward Bond's war bond movie - Three gangsters, recently released from prison, sign a million dollar contract with an eccentric millionaire to travel to Germany and do in Der Furhrer. HITLER: DEAD OR ALIVE was released in Chicago in November, 1942 and nationally the following spring. Like many, if not most, Hollywood products, it's long on emotional truth and short on facts. It was obviously made very soon after America's entry into World War Two. There's a gung-ho, optimistic attitude to it. There's also an embarrassing underestimation of the work required to defeat Nazi Germany. In the coming years America would grow wary and weary, and it would be reflected in her films, but in the early years the flame of confidence burned bright. Ward Bond, Warren Hymer and Paul Fix play the three ex-convicts in what were then stereotypical roles - Bond was the sturdy rock of the gang, Hymer the comic relief and Fix the brains. In a series of improbable scenes the boys sign the contract with the millionaire (Oh, we'll get Hitler, all right!), join the Canadian Army, become paratroopers, hijack a plane and parachute deep into German territory. Working on the theory that you don't have to worry about stretching credibility after you've already torn it to shreds, our intrepid trio not only make it into the heart of Germany, get jailed and bust out, they also manage to arrange to confront Hitler in person. Send a thug to catch a thug, I guess. Remarkably, this fluff is presented with a straight face. There's a curtain-closing message snarled out by the always watchable Ward Bond, which was probably strong enough to have the audience reaching in their wallets for the big bills for the war bonds they must have been selling at whatever theater this one was playing in. I have a soft spot in my heart - or maybe someplace a little north of that - for old B-movies and war movies made during the war. With that caveat firmly in place, I recommend HITLER: DEAD OR ALIVE.