Valkyrie, a film about an assassination plot to kill Hitler, comes out in the UK on January 23. Directed by Brian Singer the film casts Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy and Eddie Izzard (yes, really) as Nazi conspirators – and in a completely unrelated matter, LWLies is paying tribute to some of the strangest Nazis in cinema history.
First up, is Mr White America himself, Clint Eastwood. Cast as an American soldier in Where Eagles Dare, Clint incredulously convinces legions of Nazi guards that he’s ‘one of the gang’ in order to break in to a German fortress. Before you all rush off to see Clint put on a German accent, allow me to save you the trouble; he doesn’t even bother. However, next to a very British Richard Burton – also pretending to be a Nazi – the whole concept descends into a bit of a farce.
Another American institution, Marlon Brando, after making Guys and Dolls and A Streetcar Named Desire, decided to shake things up playing a Nazi in The Young Lions. Brando dons a pair of leather gloves and a bleached blonde hairdo as he plays a Nazi officer struggling to deal with the attrocities of World War II. This film is worth watching simply for Brando’s spectacular rendition of ‘ze German accent’.
It’s always difficult to step into the shoes of a reviled and well-known character. The dissonance between the actor and the actual character jars, making it that little bit harder for the audience to suspend their disbelief and enjoy the film. Which is why casting Robert Carlyle in Hitler: The Rise of Evil seems so nutty. Carlyle’s Hitler, as it turns out, is one of the most involving portrayals of the Führer. Perhaps there is hope for all those unlikely Nazis out there.
Finally, as a little bit of movie trivia, there is one actor who has played Hitler who’s even more inconceivable than Robert Carlyle: Charlie Chaplin. In The Great Dictator, actually released during World War II, Chaplin satirises Hitler as Adenoid Hynkel, a dictator bent on world domination, thereby providing a bit of relief to those who could afford a visit to a cinema during the war.
Who else have we missed?
