Hitler – Beast of Berlin

This article is about the 1939 anti-Nazi propaganda thriller. For the 1918 anti-Kaiser propaganda melodrama silent film, see The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin.

Hitler – Beast of Berlin (1939) was one of the most popular "hiss and boo" films of the World War II era, based on the novel Goose Step by Shepard Traube (1907–1983).^[1][2]

Hitler – Beast of Berlin
Film poster
Directed by	Sam Newfield (as Sherman Scott)
Written by	Fred Myton
Produced by	Producers Releasing Corporation
Starring	Roland Drew Steffi Duna Greta Granstedt Alan Ladd
Music by	David Chudnow
Distributed by	Producers Releasing Corporation
Release date	October 8, 1939 (1939-10-08)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$100,000

Plot

A man and his wife lead a German anti-Nazi propaganda literature movement. After an inadvertent betrayal, the husband is thrown into a concentration camp, from which he escapes to Switzerland.

Cast

• Roland Drew as Hans Memling
• Steffi Duna as Elsa Memling
• Greta Granstedt as Anna Wahl
• Alan Ladd as Karl Bach
• Lucien Prival as Sachs
• Vernon Dent as Lustig
• John Ellis as Gustav Schultz
• George Rosener as Wunderlich
• Bodil Rosing as Frau Kohler
• Hans Heinrich von Twardowski as Storm Trooper Albert Stahlhelm
• Willy Kaufman as Herr Kohler
• Hans Joby as Hermann Lippert
• Frederick Giermann as Father Pommer
• Crane Whitley as Klee (as Clem Wilenchick)
• Henry Zynda as Erlich (as Henry von Zynda)

Production history

The film was the first production of Producers Releasing Corporation. It was recut and released as Beasts of Berlin the same year, having been banned in New York as too inflammatory at the time. It was also reissued in 1940 as Goose Step and in the early 1940s as Hell's Devils.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Archival footage of Adolf Hitler is included.

Selected film criticism

Beast received mixed reviews. Film Daily described it as a "well done film, amazingly well done in view of the actual amount of time and money spent in its production," while Variety judged it an "artistic failure, for its attacks on the Nazi regime merely scratch the surface without ever even hinting at the fundamental evils of Nazism."^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

James G. Stahlman, the president and publisher of the Nashville Banner, wrote an unusual editorial in advance of the film's release, calling for it to be banned because it might inflame public emotions on the subject of Nazism. He argued that the evils of Hitler were already widely known and that there was no need to engage in what he described as "war propaganda."^[8]

Release

The film was released in 1940 as Goose Step.^[9]

See also

• Exploitation film
• Propaganda film
• Nazism and cinema
• History of propaganda films
• American propaganda during World War II
• The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin