Title: First Nazi villain in a Hollywood movie....?
Lon Huber - January 29, 2008 06:21 AM (GMT)
This came up in a chat room recently... what was the earliest use of a Nazi as a villain in a Hollywood film? I'm guessing one might have turned up as early as 36 or so... but I can't think of an instance.
JEFFREY ALLEN RYDELL - January 29, 2008 07:14 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Lon Huber @ Jan 29 2008, 01:21 AM) |
| This came up in a chat room recently... what was the earliest use of a Nazi as a villain in a Hollywood film? I'm guessing one might have turned up as early as 36 or so... but I can't think of an instance. |
Maybe in a serial...?
Craig Blamer - January 29, 2008 08:18 AM (GMT)
1936's
I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany might be a contender.
But according to IMDb, the first real Hollywood entry was 1939's
Confessions of a Nazi Spy.
Tim Rogerson - January 29, 2008 09:21 AM (GMT)
The Lady Vanishes (1938) has unnamed Nazi villians (or does this count as a British not a Hollywood film??).
James Cheney - January 30, 2008 08:53 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Tim Rogerson @ Jan 29 2008, 03:21 AM) |
| The Lady Vanishes (1938) has unnamed Nazi villians (or does this count as a British not a Hollywood film??). |
Aren't they 'crypto-Nazis'? I don't think the Balkan-Eastern European baddies are labelled with anything as specific as a swastika or party affiliation.Though the correspondence is clear enough, Hitchcock and his writers (and/or the book adapted) leave the relationship to real life events unfolding at the time at the fable-allegory level of analogy (the Italian clownish magician equals Mussolini?).
Or am I wrong? Maybe...
Michael Wells - February 1, 2008 12:32 PM (GMT)
You're right, James. I just watched it again a couple months ago in the new Criterion edition, and that approach is pretty extensively discussed in the supplementary materials.
And it's definitely a British movie, certainly not Hollywood.