Rent The Man who Crossed Hitler (2011)
3.5 of 5 from 53 ratings
1h 24min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
A revealing drama telling the true story of a Jewish lawyer who challenged Hitler - and paid with his life in Dachau concentration camp. In the spring of 1931, with Germany on the brink of economic collapse, the audacious Hans Litten put Adolf Hitler on the witness stand of a Berlin court. At great personal risk the young lawyer aimed to expose the true character of Hitler to the German public and thereby halt the phenomenal rise of the Nazi Party. In a humiliating and hostile cross-examination, Hitler was forced to account for his violent methods, his apparent contempt for the law and his stated desire to destroy German democracy. Hitler survived the ordeal, but it was a close encounter which he never forgot. - Actors:
- Ed Stoppard, Ian Hart, Bill Paterson, Sarah Smart, Anton Lesser, John Hollingworth, Ronan Vibert, Ruth McCabe, Will Keen, Robert O'Mahoney, Alexander Hanson, Terry Byrne, Chris Patrick-Simpson, Nigel O'Neill, Patrick FitzSymons, David Ryan, Sam Hardy, Dominic Kinnaird, Dean Weir
- Directors:
- Justin Hardy
- Producers:
- Lucy Bassnett-McGuire, Mark Hayhurst, Susan Horth
- Writers:
- Mark Hayhurst
- Aka:
- Hitler on Trial
- Studio:
- Dazzler
- Genres:
- Drama
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch if You Like: The Wicker Man
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Reviews (1) of The Man who Crossed Hitler
Fascinating Courtroom Drama about a Lawyer who Tried to Stop Hitler in 1931/2 - The Man who Crossed Hitler review by PV
This is a fascinating film. It is talky, yes, but courtroom dramas are. The law matters and the arguments are facsinating - and who makes the law? Dictators do if they are in power, and Hitler never did anything illegal therefore...
Many have played Hitler, and the core of the man is how to do it - not to be a cartoon character. Ian Hart does that here.
Other actors spot on, and Bruckner as Hitler's aide is a fascinating character who fell out of favour in 1940 and suffered no Nuremburg trial or any punishment post WWII (died 1954 aged 70). 97% SS men did not either.
The actors are first class. The script from court transcripts. Litten is from Konigsberg - now Kaliningrad a Russian enclave. many cities in central/eastern Europe have German and Russian and local names.
Also worth watching the drama documentary about another lawyer Josef Hartinger - who survived the war and died in 1984! - who in 1933 tried to stop the Nazis by using the law to investigate and prosecute SS guards for murders at Dachau, where Litten ended his days in 1938 by his own hand apparently. Watch "The First Six Months in Power", the second episode of the 2019 BBC documentary Rise of the Nazis which describes the investigation into the murders at Dachau when he was deputy state prosecutor
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