Hitler – Beast of Berlin


Hitler – Beast of Berlin is a 1939 anti-Nazi propaganda film based on the novel Goose Step by Shepard Traube.

Plot

A man and his wife lead a German anti-Nazi propaganda literature movement. After an inadvertent betrayal, the husband is confined to a concentration camp, from which he escapes to Switzerland.

Cast

The film was the first production of Producers Releasing Corporation. It was recut and released as Beasts of Berlin the same year after having been banned in New York for its inflammatory content. It was also reissued in 1940 as Goose Step later in the decade as Hell's Devils.
Archival footage of Adolf Hitler is included.

Reception

Film Daily described the film as a "well done film, amazingly well done in view of the actual amount of time and money spent in its production," while Variety judged it an "artistic failure, for its attacks on the Nazi regime merely scratch the surface without ever even hinting at the fundamental evils of Nazism."
James G. Stahlman, the president and publisher of the Nashville Banner, wrote an editorial in advance of the film's release, calling for it to be banned because it might inflame public emotions on the subject of Nazism. He argued that the evils of Hitler were already widely known and that there was no need to engage in what he described as "war propaganda".

Release

The film was released in 1940 as Goose Step.