Hitler: The Last Ten Days has one profoundly strange aspect, due to it being a British-Italian co-production. The project appears to have originated in Italy rather than Britain, and it's likely that once a very enthusiastic Guinness was cast, more British talent followed. Regardless, the film is a strange, sometimes awkward jumble of talent: an Italian director (Ennio De Concini, primarily a screenwriter of everything from the Oscar-winning Divorce Italian Style to the cheap sci-fi thriller Battle of the Worlds, made a year apart) and cinematographer (Ennio Guarnieri), an Italy-based German producer (Wolfgang Reinhardt) and German co-star (Doris Kunstmann), but a mostly British cast with a few Italians in prominent roles.

Olive Films' new Blu-ray sources an okay but far from great high-def transfer licensed from Paramount, the film's American distributor. The image is acceptable but on the soft and blotchy side, with signs of minor damage here and there.

The title says it all, recounting the last ten days of Adolf Hitler's (Guinness) life, from his 56th birthday on April 20, 1945 to his suicide on April 30th.

One of the advantages of Downfall over Last Ten Days is the very effective, almost unbearably tense atmosphere it generates in Hitler's bunker. Reaction to the Third Reich's imminent collapse varies widely: some are in a state of total denial while others, realizing the end is at hand, are panicky yet unable to express this or flee. Still others are True Believers, fiercely loyal to der Fuhrer and resolved to commit suicide before greatly-feared Russians troops storm in. There's some of this in Last Ten Days, but the picture is dominated by its study of Hitler himself, mostly with his trusted generals nervously gauging each other's reactions to their leader's delusions of a last-minute victory and, later, acceptance that all is lost.

One of the few survivors of the bunker and the years that followed was Nazi officer Gerhard Boldt, He wrote Hitler's Last Days: An Eye-Witness Account, the basis for the film, and though Boldt was technically played by Kenneth Colley (Pennies from Heaven, The Empire Strikes Back) in the movie, second lead Simon Ward (Young Winston), as the fictional character Capt. Hoffman, is really Boldt's movie surrogate.

Alec Guinness regarded this as one of his all-time best performances, though he was less pleased with the film that resulted. With his placid, pale, almost mask-like face, he looks more like the real Hitler than Bruno Ganz does in Downfall, and Guinness so immersed himself in research that he captures Hitler's mannerisms and subtleties remarkably well, but it's still only a partial success. Though it didn't seem at all unusual when the picture was new, after Downfall it's a strange experience to watch such a carefully studied performance in English - a remarkable recreation on one hand, but with Guinness's atypically guttural but very British accent.

Another problem, not Guinness's fault, is that by this point so near the end of Hitler's life, the already enigmatic leader had withdrawn into a state of near-catatonia with only occasional emotional outbursts, delusional ramblings, or remote expressions of affection toward his closest allies. Probably the best English-language portrayal of Hitler was Derek Jacobi's in the multi-part television movie Inside the Third Reich (1982), based on architect Albert Speer's memoirs. There's a crucial moment in that drama where Speer learns of Hitler's suicide and begins weeping, partly out of relief that the nightmare that was Nazi Germany is coming to an end, but also out of genuine grief for a man he had admired, even loved. In other words, that drama, and especially because of Jacobi's performance, successfully captured the dangerous allure of Hitler's charisma, a charisma completely lacking in Guinness's performance.

But Hitler: The Last Ten Days has its own attributes, from the interesting touch of having all scenes outside the bunker in sepia-toned black-and-white with only the bunker interior scenes in color, to a marvelously disturbing scene, historically accurate, in which the remaining loyal Nazis almost gaily discuss the various means in which they plan to commit suicide.

The picture's best moments involve Colonel-General Robert Ritter von Greim (Eric Porter) and his companion, aviatrix Hanna Reitsch (Diane Cilento). Loyal Nazis, they are flattered but baffled by Hitler's order that Greim report to the surrounded bunker (they landed on an improvised airstrip near the Brandenburg Gate) but, swept up in the nervous emotion of the bunker, nearly refuse to leave Hitler's side when ordered two days later.

The rest of the cast do what they can with less carefully sketched parts. German actress Doris Kunstmann makes little impression as Eva Braun, while fine talent like Joss Ackland, Barbara Jefford, and Phyllida Law mostly keep to the background, though Julian Glover, Philip Stone and, in a brief scene near the end, Angela Pleasance stand out from the crowd. Adolfo Celi and Gabriele Ferzetti, Italian actors best known outside that country for their prominent roles in James Bond movies, have large parts here as General Krebs and Field Marshal Keitel, respectively, but as they were in the 007 films, each is dubbed (Celi by Robert Rietty, Ferzetti by, I think, David de Keyser). Needless to say, neither looks remotely Aryan.

Video & Audio

Shot for 1.85:1 widescreen exhibition and presented here in 1.78:1 format, Hitler: The Last Ten Days appears sourced from secondary film elements that are inconsistent, sometimes fine with a sharp image and strong color, but too often soft and blotchy with signs of damage here and there. The DTS-HD Master Audio (English mono only with no subtitle options) is likewise okay at best. No Extra Features.

Parting Thoughts

Downfall is the much better film and a genuine must-see, but Hitler: The Last Ten Days has many good points of its own and is Recommended.

Stuart Galbraith IV is the Kyoto-based film historian and publisher-editor of World Cinema Paradise. His new documentary and latest audio commentary, for the British Film Institute's Blu-ray of Rashomon, is now available while his commentary track for Arrow Video's Battles without Honor and Humanity will be released in November.