Hitler- Dead or Alive (1942)

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Not quite as awful as some would make it out - but definitely in the 'so bad it's funny' category. In fact, it could have been worse - I smiled a lot but I never laughed out loud as I do with Ed Wood films.There's nothing credible about the story whatsoever - no, don't even try. At one point Hitler gets his mustache shaved off, and people who have known him for years can no longer recognize him! Theshoddy sets and preposterous plot devices have been remarked by other reviewers, why belabor such points. And Ward Bond's performance isn't simply "over the top," it's shot out to the stratosphere. There are some funny lines, and the German accents are Monty-Pythonesque caricatures of human speech. The first half drags a bit, but the second half moves along at a fair clip.One other piece of plotting non-sequitor: The narrator of the story makes out that he can report a dead hero's last words - unfortunately, nobody present at the death could possibly report these to him. Is he just clairvoyant? And that hero - racketeer, bank-robber, murderer - "A great man," one character calls him, "a great American" says another. Hmmm....Oh well; one positive piece of propaganda does show up toward the end, when the Nazis line a group of children up against a wall and shoot them. A bit of a brutal throw-away in a film like this, but since this is really something Nazis did, it was important to communicate it to American audiences, so they could get a glimpse at their real enemy - which, since this is the point of the film, made this brief brutal moment worth the whole effort, I guess.

After eleven years at Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay, several gangsters are released and immediately concoct a scheme to kill Hitler in exchange for a bounty. Why will they succeed? Because they previously assassinated a fellow gangster. If you can accept that premise then the other contrived actions and subplots will be immaterial.This film is far-removed from Plan 9 From Outer Space not that it is better. This film was produced in 1941 or '42 which was in the early days of the War, long before the German Army retreated from North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Greece, Romania and France. This is a simple story exploiting the hopes and dreams of many Americans.It is especially interesting that gangsters are cast as heroes and at the end proclaimed "great Americans". J. Edgar Hoover and his star agent Eliot Ness at the FBI must have been livid after spending the 1930s claiming bootleggers and minor gangsters were the greatest threat to America since abolitionists.While some scenes provoke a smile, this is far from the lunacy of Plan 9. The writer, producer and director of this film are mere apprentices or hacks compared to Ed Wood, Jr. To even compare the two films is a travesty. Unlike Plan 9, I recommend renting this because one viewing is more than enough.This would have been great comedy if the Three Stooges had been cast as the lead actors. But, they were not and therefore, this is merely a mild broth that is less than filling. However, it does have one redeeming characteristic and that is the ending when "war lords and profiteers" are proclaimed a greater threat than Hitler. It is mind-boggling that the screenwriter foresaw Dick Cheney, the president of Halliburton corporation who loudly advocated during 2003, invading Iraq allegedly to destroy non-existent weapons of mass destruction. And, subsequently out of sheer coincidence received contracts totaling more than $12 billion to rebuild Iraq.

This film has been reviewed many times already by other watchers, and I will not add a recap to the plot as that has already been done. This is a film made in 1942, mere months after the United States entered Wolrd War II. This film is a prime example of American propaganda. And yes, America did make Propaganda films just as Germany and Japan did, its just harder to see an American propaganda film.The plot is somewhat silly, the Nazis are portrayed as buffoons (but honestly who would want to see a film with clever Nazis anyway?), and the film today does not hold up well. But the honesty of the performance of Ward Bond, an actor who is best known for his Western roles is worth watching. Yes, the Nazis are seen murdering innocent children, and Ward Bond does give a heartfelt speech that he manages to choke out even though he is shot and dying, but this film is American propaganda, and is a very interesting piece of what patriotic movie making was like in 1942. Silly, yes, by todays standards, but if you watched this film in 1942 while the war was going on, you would not have felt the film was silly, but hopeful.

I was always interested in viewing a Bobby Watson vehicle. Recently I purchased this film solely for that reason. Film historians tell us that Mr. Watson was a dead ringer for Adolf Hitler and I had to see this for myself. Watson only shows up in the film after about two thirds of the way through.All in all, this film is so bad that it's pathetic. Putting aside propaganda reasons, it boggles the imagination why an accomplished actor like Ward Bond (Gentleman Jim, Wagon Train, Gone With the Wind) would actually star in such a farce. My only guesses are that 1) he was hard up for money or 2) he felt it was his patriotic duty to do this stinker.The Nazis in this film are shown to be idiotic boobs and incompetent to the point of not even being able to keep POWs from escaping from Dachau. Actually, Dachau wasn't even used as a POW camp. At any rate, that aside, they are depicted as a group of nincompoops, much like the ones in the TV program, Hogan's Heroes. I always thought that Stalag 17 spawned the idea for Hogan's Heroes, but now I think that Hitler Dead or Alive may have been the movie that influenced Bing Crosby to air that TV classic!!Simply put, this movie is nonsensical, moronic and unrealistic. It's worth the time to view it once, just for laughs, but to view it a second time is a waste of time!