User reviews

******SPOILERS******Off the wall war movie about a bunch of gangsters who become patriotic, well the million dollar reward helps too, and are dropped into Germany to get, as the movie title says, Hitler dead or alive. Hitler, a highly decorated WWI combat veteran, is made out to look like a coward or a fool as he begs for his life when captured or runs and hides from the slightest sound or danger when he's in charge! Watching all this now, in 2003, I can only imagine how people watching "Hitler Dead or Alive" back then, in 1942, would have wondered just how Hitler and his Nazis got as far as they did in the first place.

Totally insane plot, even for a movie made during wartime, where there was stories going around that Hitler had doubles. With this in mind the boys from the mob had to make sure that they caught the real Hitler they brought along someone with them who knew Hitler,from back in the beer hall days of the 1920's. The Hitler expert, as well as former friend, recognized him by a scar that he had over his upper lip that resulted from a bottle thrown at him during a beer hall brawl! Believe it or not were told that's the reason he grew a mustache! Oh really! When Hitler is caught the gangster's in order to find out that he's the real McCoy, or Hitler, shave his famous mustache off and there's the scar! At that point Hitler knowing that the jig is up, as well as mustache off, cries out hysterically to his captors "Please spear my life and I'll give you half of my kingdom".

This movie is even funnier then "The Producers" which is a comedy about Hitler and the Third Reich made for laughs years after Hitler and his regime was history, and no longer a threat to anyone. Unlike that film "Hitler Dead or Alive" that was made in all seriousness as a moral boaster for the "War Effort". Where the ending of the movie could well have lost the war for the allies if it was taken seriously just for the false and moronic information that it presented.

Just before Hitler is shot by is own troops because they didn't recognize him without his mustache, I kid you not, the commander of the SS execution squad that was about to do Hitler in says disgustedly to him "how did Germany produce a piece of scum like you". A moment later at the same time thinking that Hitler got away from the gangsters he says triumphantly about his beloved Fuhrer, whom he's just about to have executed, in complete awe "The Man Is Pure Genius"! I had to take my heart medication pills to keep from getting a heart attack just from laughing!

Oh yes the end of this ridiculous movie tells us that Hitler was actually killed in 1942 and the Hitler you see in the papers and newsreels is just a double. I guess that's how in the end the allies won the war according to this outrageous film: Hitler wasn't around to lead the Germans to their final victory! But you know what you'll never read this amazing "fact" in any history book or see it on the History Channel! Oh yeah do you wanna bet!

Yes, the movie "Hitler, Dead or Alive",was sub-par for that time period's genre, but I believe that the basic theme could be currently remade, with success! Using an all-star cast & more expensive sets, this "B" movie plot could capture a new audience, since World War II movies have become in fashion again, in recent years! I also think a film, like the "Dirty Dozen" was also influenced by it!

If you look at numerous 'war' films, actually made during WW II, they were done quickly & cheaply, to capitalize on the times.

Even the great "Casablanca", made in 1943, was done mostly on back-lots & to take advantage of the recent 'action' there, so please look at "Hitler, Dead or Alive" through the eyes of war audiences, who had no television & were anxious to see anything about world events!

I saw this movie when it first came out. My age group cohort, the males anyway, still remember this movie fondly. Every kid saw it. Of course it's ridiculous, in the same way the Three Stooges are ridiculous. We wouldn't criticize our three stooge friends for not being realistic.

At the time this movie came out, Americans didn't know about concentration camps and the Holocaust. Thus, the silliness of this film can be expected to fall flat for adults who watch it now. However, laughing at Hitler gang movies was quite common in 42, 43, 44. It was a common recreation.

I will also add that this was Ward Bond's only starring role in his long movie career.

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!

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.

This film is what _Desperate Journey_ (Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan) might have been if it had been a B-film. (I know: _Desperate Journey_ isn't that good to start with---that's the problem!) Three ex-gangsters take up a wealthy man's offer of 1 MILLION dollars to anyone who can bring in Hitler--dead or alive. The three join the RCAF(why?) and parachute their way into Germany, bringing along their hapless pilot. I wish I could say that the film builds to a tension-filled climax, but every scene becomes even more (unintentionally) hilarious. The leaden dialogue is more than matched by the mind-bogglingly-dreadful German accents affected by the leading players. ("Vat? Ve haf only until Sursday, hmm?") In one scene, a sneering guard actually checks passes by repeating "So! So! So!" In hindsight, some of the portrayals of wartime Germany are actually touchingly innocent: the small prison holding the three gangsters is identified as "Dachau," a name that did not yet have horror associated with it. Now we know...

Like many an earnest wartime film, _Hitler: DoA_ had a sincere message (there is more to the Nazi menace than Adolf Hitler). Yet I have a hard time believing that, even in wartime, its schlocky delivery moved very many Americans to consider the deeper meaning of the war in which they wre engaged (yeah, right!) This one was definitely for the kids, an attempt to re-make the American gangster film with a wartime theme, proving that even American criminals have a basic grasp of decency and heroism, far above that shown by the evil Nazis. Throw in lots of chases and shoot-em-ups, and voila! You have a gangster film magically metamorphosed into patriotic material. If you don't expect too much, you can enjoy this one as an almost-fun bit of camp.

Aesthetically speaking, this is not a good film in the least. The plot is stupid, the dialog is beyond just stupid and the film can only be enjoyed as a silly piece of kitsch. However, I liked it because it represents the extreme in how bad an American propaganda film can be. Like "First Yank in Tokyo", any attempt to make a believable story went out the window with this one! The film stars some actors who are usually there for support--Ward Bond, Paul Fix and Warren Hymer. While I liked them as colorful characters in films, without a strong and more competent leading man, the film is a bit doomed at the onset. The three play gangsters who lead a Three Stooges-like covert mission to kill Hitler. And, as for Hitler and his henchmen, they are about as smart as you'd expect from a Stooges' film! It's all very dopey and silly but I could also see someone today watching it precisely because it's so bad--so over the top.

This film has nothing going for it other than goofiness. It is so weird and wacky that it makes for a wonderfully strange evening of movie watching--and it's easy to, as the film is in the public domain and can be downloaded for free.

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.

I am continuing my "dead or alive" theme with this little war-time propaganda soporific. Before Blood Diamond, Gorillas in the Mist and The Forbidden Dance, Ward Bond went in to Germany via Canada and Great Britain, to kill Adolf Schicklgruber (a.k.a Adolf Hitler). Now I see where the inspiration for Coleman Francis' Red Zone Cuba came from. I will summarize the main points : Steve Maschick (Bond) has just been released from Alcatraz for tax evasion, after serving an 11 year of 12 stint, with his cronies "The Book" (Paul Fix, Alumni of Night of the Lepus) and "Dutch" (the handicap-able Warrne Hymer). The same day a rich tycoon puts up a $1,000,000 reward for the killing of Schicklgruber (Hilter.... oh Monty!!). To set the record straight. A bunch of beer swilling low-level criminal mobsters want to infiltrate the deepest corners of the Third Reich and assassinate Hitler. The plan, none. It's all improvised. Colonel "Hannibal" Smith would have said something about "jazz" at this point.

I'm done with the plot at this point. I will continue by sharing with you some of the intricacies of this sublime stain. They must have been working with a very, very limited budget. The cockpit of the paratrooper plane looks like a giant room, with an oval arch. The pilot is sitting down in a chair, "acting" like he's looking out the window and may be (through some miracle) holding a flight stick. Ed Wood's production would have looked like Steve Spielberg's by comparison. And of course there the hackney stock footage. We have a musical score that boils your blood at the same time it melts your heart. Yankee Doodle is drawn out into a 2 minute epic, describing the griping and stress-filled mood of hiding under the stairs in the sitting room. It's melody is wave-like, moving from eerie to patriotic to melancholy. It also moves to nausea. We also have yet another movie where Hitler is right handed. If I remember correctly, Herr Schicklgruber was of the left persuasion. We also cannot forget about characters such as Else, the German Duchess with a sometimes German, sometimes French accent from London, who doubles as a double agent. Have you noticed Germany looks a lot like California? Yeah, I've had enough already. How about you ?

Ward Bond worked on 25+ movies with John Ford and who knows how many with John Wayne. He was always the lone-cowboy backing you up. Were the times really that tough or was it the damn old studio system again, with its contractual obligations that lead to his involvement in this production? Ward has committed his energy and effort into this role. It is sad that there is nothing there to keep you . Ward is by far the only reason to keep watching. It is to see his over the top performance as a leading man. This movie also seems a bit ironic when thinking what happened to Ward during the blacklisting in Hollywood and all his Communist comrades.

This is a collection of celluloid film which adds up to a ridiculous premise, that is remarkably forward thinking considering the idiocracy of the 26th century to come. It has influenced numerous movies from the Dirty Dozen to Invasion U.S.A to Delta Force. Ward's Anti Nazi-Pro Child message at end, would go on to influence a certain man from Cuba. And inspire millions to "Say hello to his little friend..."

Three gangsters head for Nazi Germany to capture Adolph Hitler and claim a big monetary reward. With a lot of Fuherer imposter's, how would they find the "real" Hitler: Simple, he had a beer stein cut on his upper lip delivered during the famous Munich Beer Hall Putsch, and grew his trademark mustache to cover it up. All the boys had to do was keep shaving "Hitlers" until they found the real one with the scar. And how did they learn to speak German??? Simple: (in Ward Bond's words) "...from driving a beer truck in Milwaukee..." To everyone who tells me that "Plan 9 From Outer Space" was the worst film ever made, I simply reply: "You haven't seen 'Hitler: Dead or Alive." Watch it for laughs!

The only reason I wanted to see this World War Two propaganda film was the presence of Ward Bond in a leading role which he handled very well & was completely convincing & believable. He had an enormous screen presence & personality & he could've easily became a leading actor if he really wanted to but he was content in small & distinguished supporting roles. He was quite versatile & is often associated with John Wayne in the John Ford directed films. Ward Bond was literally in just about every film to name a few like "It Happened One Night" (1934) he was an extra in "G-Men" (1935) "Night Key" with Boris Karloff (1937), "Dead End" (1937), "Prison Break" with Barton Maclane (1938), "Gone With The Wind" (1939) he was an extra in "Son Of Frankenstein" (1939), "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946), "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" with James Cagney (1950) etc. He was in hundred's of movies.

He often played cops & gangsters & I thought he did a good job in the leading role of the patriotic gangster. The cast is solid with established actors like Paul Fix & Warren Hymer who often played stupid gangsters. Sure the plot is far fetched but it was 1942 & WW2 was a very popular war inspiring national patriotism. The film was obviously a wartime moral booster while at the same time trying to sustain & save a dying genre: the gangster film & in 1942 what better way to sell a gangster movie than to turn the gangsters into patriotic American hero's on an improbable mission to knock off Adolf Hitler. It may be a little campy today but in it's day this movie was probably taken seriously by 1942 audiences. Think about it, the film was obviously intended to be serious & it's not a bad watch & I would watch it again & it's by far superior to the Ed Wood films.

There is really no comparison & there is a lot worse movies out there than this. Don't forget Ed Wood was voted the worst director of all time, an honor & title he fittingly deserves. It doesn't get any worse than Ed Wood not even an Elvis Presley movie.

This is the most ridiculous movie I have ever seen. If it had been the Marx Brothers or Laurel & Hardy, the level of stupidity of this movie would almost be acceptable. However, neither of those comedy teams would have done a film this bad. This is not meant to be a comedy, although one cannot help laughing at it. It is truly inconceivable that a film studio would release something like this. Here's the premise: a group of bootleggers that have just been released from a prison stretch are approached by the United States government to go into Berlin undercover and assassinate Hitler. Not only is premise stupid, the execution is even worse. It's no wonder that so many American civilians had no idea what the war was really like for those that experienced it first-hand, what with films like this on the big screen to reduce reality to comic proportions!

I found this film online and started to watch it a few times but shrugged it off as the beginning is mediocre and uninteresting. Later on in my life I went back to it, to the last part when Hitler enters the film and I was stupefied at the sequence of events and was highly entertained. Its a film which will probably surprise you in a good way all the way up to the end. One reason for all the low votes (other then it is a low budget film), a lack of imagination that this is a fictional film, not real life? Perhaps, maybe the reviewers are offended at a certain ignorance of the Nazi characters? Maybe. I went back and watched the rest of the film after being fascinated by the violent ending and found it very funny and exciting.

Reportedly, in April 1865, upon hearing the dreadful news from Washington, D.C., Benjamin Disraeli made the comment that "Assassination has never changed history!". A brave statement, but dubious. Lincoln's murder took a first rate political mind and spirit out of an office that needed him, and put in a misguided, ill prepared man with some sense of his office's importance. The result was that Lincoln's hope to restore the Union with a benign peace was wrecked by the inept President Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republican Congress which sought a harsher peace on the South. John Wilkes Booth had changed history indeed.

Same happened in 44 B.C. when Julius Caesar was killed. Same happened in 1914 when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed and World War I broke out. Assassination does effect history.

In 1942 two Czech patriots were parachuted into their homeland to carry out a mission. They did - they killed Reinhart Heydrich, the "Hangman" "Protector" of Bohemia, and creator of the Final Solution. Heydrich was in a car that was blown up, and it is pleasant to announced that the creep actually died from being skewered by eight heavy springs in the seat that he was seated in - it took him over a week to die. Given his involvement in the Holacaust and other atrocities, one can only say he died the way he deserved. Unfortunately, the Germans destroyed two villages, and killed hundreds of people in retaliation. Because of that the Allies did not carry out any other assassination plots in Europe against Nazis.

But the notion of killing Nazi leaders was instilled in the air, and I think that is why this film was made soon after. To Americans Heydrich was vaguely known (after the destruction of Lidice and the other village interest in the "Hangman" led to two films being made: Fritz Lang's HANGMEN ALSO DIE and Douglas Sirk's HITLER'S MADMAN). HITLER, DEAD OR ALIVE is not a good film - it is really rather stupid. The idea of hiring three American criminals to kill Der Fuhrer is outlandish. But to be fair, this idea of criminals fighting the good fight against Nazis was fairly common in Hollywood films. Nazis never fought fairly, so we needed someone who also fought unfairly. Witness Humphrey Bogart and his co-horts in ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (against Conrad Veidt) or Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE (admittedly against traitors working for Japan, not Germany) or LUCKY JORDAN. Still, if you want to kill the most vicious government leader in history, why use three gunman instead of working out a plan with the government. So if you have problems with this, you will have problems with the entire film.

The only thing I liked about this movie was when Bobs Watson (as Hitler) makes a comment to a cohort that he eventually plans to doublecross Mussolini. Perhaps it might have happened sooner or later, but Der Fuhrer actually had a high regard for Il Duce, and later in the war sent his leading special agent, Otto Skorzeny, into Italy to rescue the imprisoned ex-head of the government. Still it was amusing to hear that. Otherwise, the film was a total wash-out.

More fun than anything else, this is a cute exciting little yarn, announcing DIRTY DOZEN; more or less. Bobby Watson playing Adolf Hitler will make it two years later for John Farrow's HITLER GANG. This is an excellent grade B picture from Nick Grinde which will give you much surprise and an awesome twist ending that you won't forget. I repeat, don't take it too seriously and you'll appreciate it. After all, this is a propaganda movie, an anti Nazi feature made in 1942. What could we expect else? I nearly forgot this movie and it was so refreshing to watch it again...A curious gem that deserves to be seen.