Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil (1985)
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34% of users liked it
(184 ratings)
The two-part TV movie Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil crystallizes that evil by concentrating on two Berlin brothers. In 1931, Helmut Hoffman (Bill Nighy) a brilliant student and self-styled opportunist, joins Hitler's SS. At the same time, his younger brother Karl (John Shea), a top athlete… More The two-part TV movie Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil crystallizes that evil by concentrating on two Berlin brothers. In 1931, Helmut Hoffman (Bill Nighy) a brilliant student and self-styled opportunist, joins Hitler's SS. At the same time, his younger brother Karl (John Shea), a top athlete and idealist, becomes a chauffeur for the "S.A." (storm troopers). When the SS topples the SA from power, Karl ends up in Dachau. He is rescued through his brother's influence--if you can describe sending Karl to fight on the Russian Front a "rescue." As he watches the Third Reich deteriorate, Helmut at long last suffers pangs of conscience. As if the story of the rise of Nazism needed any further melodrama, Hitler's SS shoehorns in a romantic triangle involving Karl, Helmut, and beautiful nightclub-singer Lucy Gutteridge. The all-star supporting cast of Hitler's SS includes Carroll Baker as the Hoffman brothers' anguished mother; Tony Randall as an androgynous entertainer named Putzi (shades of Cabaret's Joel Grey); and David Warner, repeating his Holocaust role as SS head man Heydrich. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Jim Goddard
- Genres
- Drama, Television, Romance
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Feb 7, 1985 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
It never rises above a flatness, to remain only a routine telling of familiar historical events.
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Cast
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John Shea
as Karl
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Bill Nighy
as Helmut
- Tony Randall
- José Ferrer
- Lucy Gutteridge
- David Warner
- Carroll Baker
- Paul Brooke
- Warren Clarke
- John Dicks
- Michael Elphick
- Colin Jeavons
- Stratford Johns
- Derek Newark
- John Normington
- Ivor Roberts
- Struan Rodger
- Walter Sparrow
- Robert Urquhart
- John Woodnut
- Prentis Hancock
- Peter Craze
- Robert MacLeod
- Bernard Lloyd
