Will Kaufman Movies
- 1962
This was the last film by director Stuart Heisler, and in his uneven output it was not one of the most memorable. The evil dictator (Richard Basehart) is shown to be very much involved with his love life, as though impotency and a severe Oedipal complex alone could account for his dominion over Germany and the insanity that led into World War II. Other characters in the top echelons make their way into and out of the story, including Heinrich Himmler (Rick Traeger), Joseph Goebbels (Martin Kosleck), and of course, Eva Braun (Marla Emo). Any viewers looking for an explanation of how the madness within Hitler related to his rise to power and his downfall, will best look elsewhere. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Basehart, Cordula Trantow, (more)
- 1945
In this engagingly silly musical fantasy from the waning days of WW2, Fred MacMurray stars as Bill, who wants to serve his country but has been classified 4-F. While working at a local USO, Bill falls in love with the fickle Lucilla (June Haver, soon to be Mrs. Fred MacMurray), never realizing that he himself is worshipped from afar by the sensible Sally (Joan Leslie). Stumbling across an old lamp donated to a scrap drive, Bill impulsively rubs the lamp--and out pops Ali (Gene Sheldon), a bibulous, bumbling genie. Hoping to become a hero in Lucilla's eyes, Bill asks Ali to put him in the US Army. The genie complies, but gets his wires crossed, and Bill ends up in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. In short order, Bill meets two lookalikes of the girls in his life at "Ye U.S.O.", shows up at Valley Forge and trades quips with General Washington (Alan Mowbray)--who, in anticipation of MacArthur and Eisenhower, bombastically insists that he has no political aspirations--unsuccessfully tries to alert Washington of the duplicity of Benedict Arnold (John Davidson), and ultimately finds himself behind enemy lines with a troop of Hessians, whom he tries to hoodwink by delivering a Nuremberg-style speech, replete with "Sieg Heils." Arrested and sentenced to a Hessian firing squad, Bill again summons Ali, who whisks him off to the year 1492. In an elaborate "opera bouffe", Bill musically dissuades the sailors serving under Christopher Columbus (Fortunio Bonanova) from staging a mutiny, convincing them to continue seeking out the New World (as represented by a group of Cuban natives in a conga line). Once on dry land, Bill is entranced by a comely Indian maiden who looks a lot like Lucilla, only to be entrapped in an old-fashioned "badger game" cooked up by the girl's wily Native American boyfriend (Anthony Quinn). Buying his way out of an embarrassing situation by agreeing to purchase Manhattan Island for $24, Bill is then transported to "New Amsterdam" in the mid-1600s. In his efforts to persuade the local Dutch elders that he is the rightful owner of Manhattan, Bill succeeds only in getting arrested again. This time, however, the drunken Ali manages to zap our hero back to the 20th Century--with the 17th-century equivalent of Sally in tow. The songs, by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin, are appropriately bright and satirical, but none are standouts. Still, Where Do We Go From Here? is one of those frothy 1940s concoctions that is absolutely impossible to dislike. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred MacMurray, Joan Leslie, (more)
- 1944
Leonard Maltin once observed that Storm Over Lisbon is what Casablanca would have looked like had it been produced by Republic instead of Warner Bros. This wartime meller reunites the cast and director of the successful Republic melodrama Lady and the Monster, with less than successful results. Skating star Vera Hruba Ralston plays Maritza, a woman of mystery operating in neutral Lisbon. Maritza is somehow connected with sinister café owner Deresco (Erich Von Stroheim), who seems to have a more than a cozy relationship with the Nazis. Deresco tries to prevent American journalist John Craig (Richard Arlen) from leaving Lisbon with a cache of top-secret microfilm (what, no Letters of Transit?) With the whole world crumbling, Vera Ralston manages to work in an ice-ballet number. Few have ever had the urge to shout "Play it again" after watching Storm Over Lisbon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vera Ralston, Richard Arlen, (more)
- 1943
Storywise, Thousands Cheer is thin stuff indeed. Insouciant PFC Eddy Marsh (Gene Kelly) wants to put on a Big Show for his fellow serviceman. Along the way, Eddy falls in love with Kathryn Jones (Kathryn Grayson), the daughter of Colonel William Jones (John Boles). End of story. The principal selling angle of Thousands Cheer is the presence in the cast of virtually every musical talent on the MGM payroll: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Red Skelton, Eleanor Powell, Jose Iturbi, the Kay Kyser Orchestra, Bob Crosby and his Bobcats, the Benny Carter band, Ann Sothern, Lucille Ball, June Allyson, Gloria DeHaven?..the list goes on and on and on. Since Thousands Cheer was designed as a patriotic wartime morale-booster, it is indeed ironic that the film was written by Paul Jarrico and Richard Collins, both of whom would be blacklisted during the Red-baiting 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Kathryn Grayson, (more)
Underground is an average Warner Bros. suspenser, given a boost by its unrelenting portrayal of Nazis as verminous scum--several months before America's entry into World War II. Jeffrey Lynn plays an impressionable young European who is intoxicated by the "glories" of National Socialism. Lynn's brother, Philip Dorn, is on the opposite side of the fence as an announcer for an underground Resistance radio station. At first scornful of his brother's activities, Lynn soon learns that Hitler isn't the saint he believed him to be--especially after several of his friends are liquidated by the Gestapo. Lynn belatedly joins his brother's cause and, at the cost of his own life, helps the Resistance thwart a band of fifth columnists. Underground is a solid piece of film craftsmanship, lacking only the big star names that would have made it a box-office hit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Lynn, Philip Dorn, (more)
Though set during WW1, British Intelligence was obviously thrown together to capitalize on the outbreak of WW2. A remake of the 1930 espionager Three Faces East, the film stars Boris Karloff as Valder, the sinister butler of a British cabinet minister. It is quite possible that Valder is a German spy, and equally likely that the mysterious Helene von Lorbeer (Margaret Lindsay) is likewise working for the enemy. In fact, the audience is never quite certain who the good guys and bad guys really are until the climax, which takes place during a German zeppelin raid of London. As a balm to 1940 audiences, the film includes an early comedy scene in which German military protocol is upset by a clumsy corporal (Willy Kaufman) who bears a startling resemblance to a certain Nazi dictator. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boris Karloff, Margaret Lindsay, (more)
- 1940
Evidently Paramount had a great deal of faith in Mystery Sea Raider, else why would a mere B picture be permitted to run nearly 80 minutes? Onslow Stevens has the largest role as Carl Cutler, a prosperous importer who unexpectedly becomes a German spy when WW2 breaks out. Taking over a freighter in mid-ocean somewhere in the Caribbean, Cutler transforms the vessel into a Nazi raider, then does his best to decimate the British fleet. But Cutler has failed to take into consideration the resourcefulness of ship's captain Jimmy Madden (Henry Wilcoxon), who with the help of the Nazi's unwitting cohort June McCarthy (Carole Landis) manages to strike a blow for Democracy in the final footage. Though set in the 1940s, Mystery Sea Raider seems more like a WW1 melodrama, with both Allied and German forces displaying gallantry and even chivalry in the face of death. This sort of romanticism would be dispensed with after Pearl Harbor, whereupon no enemy officer would ever be cut any slack in a Hollywood film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carole Landis, Henry Wilcoxon, (more)
- 1940
This cautionary pre-World War II drama stars Joan Bennett as an American girl who falls in love and marries a German (Francis Lederer) in 1938. At first he seems charming, but Joan discovers that her husband is slowly being seduced by the Nazi Party. Determined to leave, Bennett is forced to battle Lederer for custody of their child, whom the husband plans to raise as a budding Fascist. The Nazi is foiled by his father(Otto Kruger), who crushes Lederer's "iron will" by informing his son that his own mother was Jewish. At 77 minutes, The Man I Married cuts out all slack, and the result is a taut, exciting melodrama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Bennett, Francis Lederer, (more)
Also known as Beasts of Berlin and Hitler: Beast of Berlin, this was the inagural effort of Producers Distributing Corporation-later to become famous (or infamous) as PRC Pictures. Set in Germany, the story concerned a dedicated group of anti-Nazis devoted to circulating propaganda literature. The leaders of the group are Roland Drew and his wife Steffi Duna. After a terrifying sojourn in a concentration camp, hero and heroine are smuggled into Switzerland so that they may carry on their work in the Free World. Based on the novel Goose Step by Shepard Traube, this little quickie was among the earliest American films to cast Nazi Germany in a villainous light. That it wasn't the best hardly mattered to the various Bundists in the US, who lobbied to have the film banned. Billed fourth in Beast of Berlin was young Alan Ladd, who was advertised as the film's star when it was reissued in the early 1940s as Hell's Devils. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roland Drew, Steffi Duna, (more)
- 1939
Bold for its time (just prior to World War II), Confessions of a Nazi Spy is an expose of a genuine Nazi espionage ring operating in the United States. Dedicated National Socialist Paul Lukas arrives in America to conduct Bund rallies and enlist German-Americans in the service of Hitler. His rabble-rousing speeches inspire a blue collar worker (Francis Lederer) to join a Bund, and then participate in spy activities. FBI agent Edward G. Robinson is assigned to investigate. Extracting a confession from the not-too-bright Lederer, Robinson traces the espionage activities to Lukas. The Nazi official's notoriety and his undesirability as a security risk compels the German secret police to kidnap Lukas and spirit him back to the Fatherland, presumably to face liquidation. The spy ring is rounded up, but Robinson realizes that this is only the beginning. Confessions of a Nazi Spy may seem dated today, but in 1939 it packed a real wallop, especially since most filmmakers of that era chose to ignore the Nazis lest they lose the valuable European market. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, (more)
- 1939
Many of the "preparedness" films of the years just prior to World War II sidestepped censorship by depicting past outrages of the Germans. Such a film was British producer Herbert Wilcox's Hollywood production Nurse Edith Cavell, in which Wilcox's future wife Anna Neagle portrayed the titular martyred Englishwoman. Ms. Neagle plays the legendary Ms. Cavell as a candidate for Canonization. Her selfless efforts to rescue refugee soldiers from World War I Belgium results in her being arrested on charges of espionage. Despite international pleas for clemency, the dastardly Deutschlanders sentence Edith to death. She faces the firing squad with a courageous serenity that makes Joan of Arc look like a hysterical schoolgirl. An earlier, silent version of Nurse Edith Cavell had caused turmoil in England due to its unadorned depiction of war's horrors. In 1939, however, audiences inundated by reports of Hitler's latest outrages were more receptive. Ironically, the film opened in the US a scant few days before war broke out in Europe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Edna May Oliver, (more)
- 1933
The title of this effervescent musical comedy translates as There is Only One Love. Louis Gravuerre and Heinz Ruhmann star respectively as an opera singer and ballet master, bosom buddies who embark upon a vacation in the Balkans. Thanks to a cluster of coincidences, our heroes are mistaken for escaped criminals and forced to take refuge in the remote mountain cabin of a taciturn hunter. Only when heroine Jenny Jugo identifies the boys are they permitted to go free -- only now, they can't get rid of Jugo, who has fallen madly in love with Gravuerre. The girl's well-meaning interference nearly causes an irreparable rift between the two pals and almost scuttles Gravuerre's singing career, but love triumphs over silliness in the finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jenny Jugo, Heinz Rühmann, (more)
