The Film (4/5)

Hitler’s Hollywood is a documentary film directed by Rüdiger Suchsland that celebrates what is called “German Nazi cinema”. His film takes a close look at roughly 1000 German films when the Nazis came into great power in 1933, lasting until 1945 with the Third Reich collapsing.

This documentary has been split into two parts, both being extremely thorough in their coverage. The first documentary, From Caligari to Hitler: German Cinema in the Age of the Masses is presented in its original German language version running for 119 minutes. This documentary details how German cinema impacted Germany’s social and cultural lifestyle from 1933-1945,  and how they were made to be in the first place as these films were being made before, during and after World War II.  

Hitler’s Hollywood is a continuation/ follow up of the documentary that runs for 105 minutes with optional German or English language narration. Screen legend Udo Kier does the English narration and his voice is soothing and yet highly enthusiastic about the subject matter. Whichever language option you choose to listen to this documentary, it takes a close in-depth look at the history of and various aspects of German films that were being made at that time, be it German propaganda pictures, or melodrama films that featured themes about fascism, the poor, romance and sexuality. Also mentioned was how German films were also trying to become more American. There is a great deal of footage and clips with Hitler, along with Fritz Lang, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, and dozens of other German actors and filmmakers, several of which fled Nazi Germany during this era. The clips were used to describe what was happening in Germany at the time with the narration giving a thorough accurate accounting. 

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

Hitler’s Hollywood has been given a Blu-ray release courtesy of Eureka Masters of Cinema. In regards to the image quality, the first thing is all of the footage used is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1:33:1. From there, the quality is a mixed bag due to the source prints and film elements of the footage that was used for the video presentation. The quality, the majority being black and white,  ranges from excellent with a nice polished bright look to fair with visible vertical lines and print damages found in some of the film clips. The color footage clips also vary from bright, bold with cheerful color to something along the lines SD quality, perhaps a nudge above SD quality with muted washed up colors. The overall appearance is nothing that will really “wow” you, but it’s still quite fascinating to see all the different clips from the films.

The audio for all three features is LPCM 2.0 stereo which sounds perfectly fine when it comes to the narration. The voices of the narrators tend to not be overpowering or even too mellow. The audio from film clips used are mostly clear, however, a few clips having hissing and few other audio issues, again just depending on the footage, source prints and elements that were used. English and German subtitles are offered for this release.

Extras (0/5)

There are no extras to be found on this release. There is a DVD included with the same content, but I wouldn’t necessarily call that an extra.

Overall (4.5)

Hitler’s Hollywood should be of great interest to those who are fans of German cinema and world cinema as a whole. While arguably some of their best films came before 1933 (Nosferatu, Metropolis) when German expressionist cinema came into bloom, this is a fascinating look at what was happening in Germany with their pictures in the 1930s and 1940s,  and what they meant to their society. There are enough film clips that could encourage you to see some of these films in their entirety. Definitely a recommended release!