Post by Mary Ellen Byrne on Aug 30, 2011 17:10:36 GMT -5
Well, here we are a week after Connie Day. Yes, one week ago today our beloved Connie was gracing our lives for a full 24 hours in the order listed below.
I have taken the liberty to post my various impression of each film and (where available) introductions and epilogues by Ben Mankewicz. Hope everyone enjoys!
6:00 AM Above Suspicion (’43) – I had the same impressions at this viewing as I had when I first saw the film. The same chills when I heard the date “April 2nd” and the part at the end when Connie says “Well, he finished his job”.
7:45 AM Contraband (’40) – Well it was nice to see this film without having to end part 1 and click on another link to begin part 2. This film was good as it was the first time I saw it. The scene where Connie comes back to the restaurant to get his fellow Danes to help him rescues Valerie Hobson, Connie tells the other men “You’re Danes! You don’t need a reason to fight!” Well maybe it’s my cynical female attitude, but my reaction to that line was “No! It’s not that your Danes, it’s that you’re men and you don’t need a reason to fight!”
9:30 AM All Through the Night (’42) – As I said in an earlier posting, this is the film that got me to sit up and really notice Connie rather than just sit back and say “Oh, there’s Conrad Veidt. OK, he’s a good enough actor.” I purchased this film because I am also a great Peter Lorre fan and I used quite a number of scenes from this film in my Peter Lorre tribute video. It’s funny by Connie seems to have slipped into one or two scenes in that video. Hmmmm. . . I wonder why that happened?
There is something that I noticed about one scene while I was doing the video. At the part where Ebbing decides he and Pepe are going to pull off the sabotage job on their own, Pepe refuses and says “I’m not going! Suicide is not for me!” Ebbing then calls Pepe a “Schwine!” and shots him dead. If you take a close, frame-by-frame look at the moment Ebbing shots (as you are able to do when working with Windows Live Movie Maker), you notice first that when Connie raises the gun to shot Peter, it’s not fully level when the shot goes off. If that were a gun shooting an actually bullet, it would hit the wall of the staircase that is between Connie and Peter. You next notice that the explosion that is supposed to be the gunshot does not come from the gun. It goes off a little to the right of where the gun barrel is. The third thing you notice is that just before the explosion goes off, you see Connie close his eyes. Now I don’t know if that is on purpose. I don’t know if Vince Sherman actually said to Connie “Close your eyes when the pop goes off. We don’t want you hurting your vision” but honestly anyone who is shooting anyone else, you don’t shut your eyes when you do it.
The next thing I noticed about Connie, especially, is as you listen to him, his character is supposed to be German but Connie goes out of his way to make sure he pronounces his “w”s properly. When Donahue finds Ebbing at the dock loading up the boat with explosives, Ebbing tells Donahue to get in the boat and take the “wheel” not the “vheel”, the “wheel”. Connie does kind of trip over the “w” and you can hear a little “v” in it but he actually seems to go out of his way to make sure if he is saying the word in English that he is saying it in the King’s English.
1:30 AM Power (’34) (aka Jew Suss) – OMG! What a performance! That is defiantly a movie that stayed with me well after it was over. Oh that poor man! (Joseph, that is!) and I will tell you as sad as the ending may have been it beat hell out of the ending of Joseph Goebbels version. That ending was just meant to teach the viewer to hate Jews. Connie’s ending did much to show the nobility of the Jewish race.
1:15 PM The Spy in Black (’39) – I did notice the ending of this one was cut short but why I don’t know. If it was any other channel I’d say it was to make more room for commercials but TCM has no commercials, not during the film anyway. I have no idea why they did this.
2:45 PM Whistling in the Dark (’41) – Still dumb! (and I watched the whole thing this time) I have no idea why Connie would do this film. Either the studio system made him do it or he wanted to prove to the world he could do comedy. I honestly think this role was soooo beneath him.
4:15 PM Escape (’40) – Good film! Although not a completely happy ending. I was hoping the Countess would be able to get out and they’d show a scene with her and Mark meeting on 52nd street but the movie didn’t go that far. I noticed on Monica’s clips on YouTube and other clips from this film that everyone kept talking in generalities. Everyone saying “The Country” instead of Germany, The Countess instead of the woman’s real name or calling Connie’s character “The General” instead of Kurt. I wonder was it that way in the novel or was MGM so very afraid to offend Germany that they danced around the truth instead of come out with it?
6:00 PM A Woman’s Face (’41) – My nieces were over to watch this when they got board of the computer so they have now been introduced to Connie although it’s in a “bad guy” role. I’m afraid that has colored their perception of him. Maybe I will have to get out “Nazi Agent” some other “good guy” film of Connie’s so the scales can be balanced. Because I was helping to watch the girls, I missed the beginning of this film and the ending and since I already own the DVD, I did not feel the need to record it so I have no idea if there was and introduction or epilogue to this film.
8:00 PM Hands of Orlac (’25) – My nieces stayed long enough to see the beginning of this. Victoria’s got the idea not what all silent films are horror films now because of this film. This movies did have an introduction to it. It was done by Ben Mankowicz in for Bob Osborne this month. Here is the introduction word for word:
Hi, I’m Ben Mankowicz, in for Robert Oborne. Welcome to day 23 of this month’s Summer Under the Stars Festival, a day we’re dedicating to German-born actor Conrad Veidt. Late in his career, Veidt became well known for playing German characters in Amercian films, but he got his start by taking part in some of Germany’s groundbreaking silent classics and that’s what we have coming up next. A creepy silent shocker from 1924, The Hands of Orlac.
It’s a story told on screen many times but probably never in a more visually sticking way than you’ll see here. A great example of what’s been called the ‘German Expressionist Style’. Conrad Veidt stars as a renowned pianist named Orlac whose valuable hands are so badly damaged in a train wreck, they need to be amputated. But all is not lost, in their place a very strange doctor transplants a new pair of hands, those of a recently dead man. But those hands, they were the hands of a murderer. Before long, Orlac begins to notice his new hands seem to have a mind of their own. The story is familiar. You may have any one of a number of remakes including “Mad Love” from 1935, that starred Peter Lorre as the surgeon, Mel Ferrar and Christopher Lee starred in a 1960 version and writer/director Oliver Stone gave the whole thing a new twist in 1981 when comic book artist Michael Caine loses his hand in an accident and the severed hand takes on a life of its own.
Here’s the original 1924 version, still the best, a film that further cemented young Conrad Veidt as a man to watch in European Cinema, from 1924, The Hands of Orlac.
Epilogue – Hi, I’m Ben Mankowicz back again for Robert Osborne. “Hands of Orlac” was made in Germany in 1924 but not released here in the States until 1928. By that time Star Conrad Veidt had already made his first trip to Hollywood where he starred in a few American films like the “Beloved Rogue” in 1927 and “The Man Who Laughs” the following year. Then Veidt returned to German to star in the first talkie made there but then things began to go badly in Germany. Hitler came to power 1n 1933 and Veidt soon left Germany along with his Jewish wife and moved to England where he built a new life and became a British Citizen. Up next today’s salute to Conrad Veidt continues with a film Veidt made for pioneering British producer Alexander Korda.
10:00 PM The Thief of Bagdad (’40) - Introduction – Hi! I’m Ben Mankowicz sitting in all this month for Robert Osborne. Thanks for joining us tonight where we are paying tribute to the great German actor, Conrad Veidt. Although Veidt made many now legendary films in Germany, he is best known for his role as the dangerous and sinister Major Henryk Strasser in “Casablanca”, a film we have coming up later tonight. But first we have Veidt in another one of his Hollywood roles, an Arabian Nights film made in 1940. This did not start out as a Hollywood production. The project actually started in England spearheaded by British Producer Alexander Korda. But England was at war with Germany at the time and London was being bombed regularly making it a pretty dangerous place to shot a movie so not long into production, Korda move the entire project to the U.S.
Our Star of the Day, Conrad Veidt, plays the bad guy. He’s a wicked, magical wizard who casts evil spells. There are princes and princesses, magical lamps, genies, flying carpets, everything you’d expect from a fantasy called Arabian Nights all of it shot in Technicolor. From 1940, also starring the Indian-born actor known only as Sabu, here’s our Star of the Day, Conrad Veidt in “The Thief of Baghdad”
Epilogue – Hi! I’m Ben Mankowicz. Robert is on vacation so I’m filling in this month. When German bombing missions made shooting this movie in London too dangerous, Conrad Veidt traveled along with the rest of the cast to Hollywood where production was completed. Veidt had been there before making a few American silent pictures in the 1920s but now he was back and it was a brand new world of talking pictures. Fortunately during the 1940s Hollywood always needed good actors who could convincingly play Germans, more specifically Nazis and Veidt found himself working regularly and putting his accent to good use.
Coming up in just a few minutes our “Summer Under The Stars” tribute to Conrad Veidt continues with the role he’s best known for today in what is generally considered to be one of the best movies ever made.
12:00 AM Casablanca (’42) – Introduction – (beginning of intro lost because my dvr started recording about 5 seconds after TCM began the movie) . . .Veidt eventually made his way to Hollywood landing a role and a memorably villainous performance in the Oscar winning Best Picture of 1943, a movie that also happens to be one of the best pictures ever. The film is, of course, “Casablanca” and we have it coming up right now.
The story is set during the early part of World War II telling the story of an American ex-patriot, played by Humphrey Bogart, living in the North African city of Casablanca and telling with drama, intrigue, romance, suspense, double-crossing, black marketeering, corruption, a pitch battle of good vs. evil, and a love triangle. When a mysterious woman from Bogart’s past arrives in town it sets off a chain of events that could change the course of the war. The cast also features Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henried who are, with Bogart, your heroes and every movie hero needs a great movie villain and that villain, a Nazi Officer, is played by the man we’re honoring today, Conrad Veidt.
That Veidt is best remembered today for playing a Nazi is ironic because he had to flee Germany for Hollywood when the Nazis came in 1933. When the Nazis were consolidating power, Veidt became an outspoken opponent and when it became clear he couldn’t do anything to stop them, Veidt and his new wife who was Jewish packed up and left the country heading first to England and ultimately on to Hollywood where he lived until his death.
From Director Michael Curtiz in 1943, here’s our star of the day, Conrad Veidt playing a character he would have despised in one of Hollywood’s most enduring classics, “Casablanca”
Epilogue – Hi! Ben Mankewicz here back for Robert Osborne while he’s on vacation. Casablanca was a huge hit for Warner Bros. It won the Oscar for best picture. But sadly, the man we’re honoring today, German actor Conrad Veidt, didn’t survive long enough to enjoy all the success. Veidt died of a heart attack. . .(last part of epilogue lost because my DVR stopped before epilogue was completely over. Although I will say one thing, my brother was in the living room as I was going over the epilogue and when Mankewicz said that Connie died before Casablanca was released he said in a very disappointed tone of voice “ah, no! What happened?” and I explained to him the story and hearing that really brought him down.)
1:45 AM Nazi Agent (’42) – Introduction – Hi! I’m Ben Mankewicz here all this month for Robert Osborne while he’s on vacation. Today, as part of our Summer Under the Stars festival, we’ve been saluting the career of German-born actor Conrad Veidt. Just previously tonight we say Veidt in the role he’s best remembered for, as a villainous Nazi officer in the Hollywood classic “Casablanca”. Up next, we’ve got the film Veidt made immediately prior to “Casablanca”, one that also finds him playing a Nazi.
Actually Veidt has two roles in the film because he plays identical twins living in America but one a Nazi, the other loyal to his adopted country. From MGM in 1942, it’s “Nazi Agent”.
In a case of life imitating art this film about Germans living in America during World War II stars several Germans who were living in America during World War II. Not only star Conrad Veidt but also his co-stars Frank Reicher and Martin Kosleck. They all shared a potent hatred for the Nazis. As a matter of fact, both Veidt and Kosleck fled Germany because the Nazis had come to power and once they got to Hollywood, they never seemed to lack for work especially when every studio in town were making movies where Nazis were the villains. When it came to playing these kinds of roles, most of Hollywood German-born actors didn’t seem to mind the typecasting. Of the Nazis, Veidt said at the time and this is a quote “They are villains and I want to do what I can to make that known to the world.” From director Jules Dassin in 1942, here’s our Star of the Day playing a dual role in “Nazi Agent”.
Epilogue – Hi! I’m Ben Mankewicz back again for Robert Osborne. That was German-born actor Conrad Veidt in a dual role of both Otto Becker and his Nazi brother Hugo. This is one of the rare Hollywood films where Veidt had top billing. At this point in his career he was mostly playing second leads and supporting roles but it wasn’t always that way. Many years earlier, Veidt had been one of the biggest stars in Europe playing roles in some of the most influential German silent films. Coming up next we’ve got Veidt in one of those movies. A German Expressionist classic and one of the creepiest silent films ever made.
And as a interesting footnote, I finished up typing the epilogue to “Nazi Agent” and I said to my mother “OK, you can delete it now if you want. I’ve got what I need.” And she responded “No! What I want is to see it again!” (We both watched it Saturday night). Well as a good daughter would I refuse something my dear mother wanted?
3:15 AM The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (’19) – This is a film I wish Victoria, at least, had been over to see. She is into zombies and I’ve always wondered if I simply referred to Caesar as a zombie (as he has been compared to many times) instead of a somnambulant, maybe she’d get excited and want to see the film and not get scared if she did. The fact that she is watching is zombie film would make her too excited to be scared
4:30 AM Dark Journey (’37) – No introduction or epilogue with this one either but I must say, the version I have was a free download from archive.com and compared to the video quality that I saw on TCM I am just going to have to buckle down and spend the cash. Archive’s version has terrible quality compared to TCM’s version. And as Monique said the ending was slightly altered from Archive’s version.
I have taken the liberty to post my various impression of each film and (where available) introductions and epilogues by Ben Mankewicz. Hope everyone enjoys!
6:00 AM Above Suspicion (’43) – I had the same impressions at this viewing as I had when I first saw the film. The same chills when I heard the date “April 2nd” and the part at the end when Connie says “Well, he finished his job”.
7:45 AM Contraband (’40) – Well it was nice to see this film without having to end part 1 and click on another link to begin part 2. This film was good as it was the first time I saw it. The scene where Connie comes back to the restaurant to get his fellow Danes to help him rescues Valerie Hobson, Connie tells the other men “You’re Danes! You don’t need a reason to fight!” Well maybe it’s my cynical female attitude, but my reaction to that line was “No! It’s not that your Danes, it’s that you’re men and you don’t need a reason to fight!”
9:30 AM All Through the Night (’42) – As I said in an earlier posting, this is the film that got me to sit up and really notice Connie rather than just sit back and say “Oh, there’s Conrad Veidt. OK, he’s a good enough actor.” I purchased this film because I am also a great Peter Lorre fan and I used quite a number of scenes from this film in my Peter Lorre tribute video. It’s funny by Connie seems to have slipped into one or two scenes in that video. Hmmmm. . . I wonder why that happened?
There is something that I noticed about one scene while I was doing the video. At the part where Ebbing decides he and Pepe are going to pull off the sabotage job on their own, Pepe refuses and says “I’m not going! Suicide is not for me!” Ebbing then calls Pepe a “Schwine!” and shots him dead. If you take a close, frame-by-frame look at the moment Ebbing shots (as you are able to do when working with Windows Live Movie Maker), you notice first that when Connie raises the gun to shot Peter, it’s not fully level when the shot goes off. If that were a gun shooting an actually bullet, it would hit the wall of the staircase that is between Connie and Peter. You next notice that the explosion that is supposed to be the gunshot does not come from the gun. It goes off a little to the right of where the gun barrel is. The third thing you notice is that just before the explosion goes off, you see Connie close his eyes. Now I don’t know if that is on purpose. I don’t know if Vince Sherman actually said to Connie “Close your eyes when the pop goes off. We don’t want you hurting your vision” but honestly anyone who is shooting anyone else, you don’t shut your eyes when you do it.
The next thing I noticed about Connie, especially, is as you listen to him, his character is supposed to be German but Connie goes out of his way to make sure he pronounces his “w”s properly. When Donahue finds Ebbing at the dock loading up the boat with explosives, Ebbing tells Donahue to get in the boat and take the “wheel” not the “vheel”, the “wheel”. Connie does kind of trip over the “w” and you can hear a little “v” in it but he actually seems to go out of his way to make sure if he is saying the word in English that he is saying it in the King’s English.
1:30 AM Power (’34) (aka Jew Suss) – OMG! What a performance! That is defiantly a movie that stayed with me well after it was over. Oh that poor man! (Joseph, that is!) and I will tell you as sad as the ending may have been it beat hell out of the ending of Joseph Goebbels version. That ending was just meant to teach the viewer to hate Jews. Connie’s ending did much to show the nobility of the Jewish race.
1:15 PM The Spy in Black (’39) – I did notice the ending of this one was cut short but why I don’t know. If it was any other channel I’d say it was to make more room for commercials but TCM has no commercials, not during the film anyway. I have no idea why they did this.
2:45 PM Whistling in the Dark (’41) – Still dumb! (and I watched the whole thing this time) I have no idea why Connie would do this film. Either the studio system made him do it or he wanted to prove to the world he could do comedy. I honestly think this role was soooo beneath him.
4:15 PM Escape (’40) – Good film! Although not a completely happy ending. I was hoping the Countess would be able to get out and they’d show a scene with her and Mark meeting on 52nd street but the movie didn’t go that far. I noticed on Monica’s clips on YouTube and other clips from this film that everyone kept talking in generalities. Everyone saying “The Country” instead of Germany, The Countess instead of the woman’s real name or calling Connie’s character “The General” instead of Kurt. I wonder was it that way in the novel or was MGM so very afraid to offend Germany that they danced around the truth instead of come out with it?
6:00 PM A Woman’s Face (’41) – My nieces were over to watch this when they got board of the computer so they have now been introduced to Connie although it’s in a “bad guy” role. I’m afraid that has colored their perception of him. Maybe I will have to get out “Nazi Agent” some other “good guy” film of Connie’s so the scales can be balanced. Because I was helping to watch the girls, I missed the beginning of this film and the ending and since I already own the DVD, I did not feel the need to record it so I have no idea if there was and introduction or epilogue to this film.
8:00 PM Hands of Orlac (’25) – My nieces stayed long enough to see the beginning of this. Victoria’s got the idea not what all silent films are horror films now because of this film. This movies did have an introduction to it. It was done by Ben Mankowicz in for Bob Osborne this month. Here is the introduction word for word:
Hi, I’m Ben Mankowicz, in for Robert Oborne. Welcome to day 23 of this month’s Summer Under the Stars Festival, a day we’re dedicating to German-born actor Conrad Veidt. Late in his career, Veidt became well known for playing German characters in Amercian films, but he got his start by taking part in some of Germany’s groundbreaking silent classics and that’s what we have coming up next. A creepy silent shocker from 1924, The Hands of Orlac.
It’s a story told on screen many times but probably never in a more visually sticking way than you’ll see here. A great example of what’s been called the ‘German Expressionist Style’. Conrad Veidt stars as a renowned pianist named Orlac whose valuable hands are so badly damaged in a train wreck, they need to be amputated. But all is not lost, in their place a very strange doctor transplants a new pair of hands, those of a recently dead man. But those hands, they were the hands of a murderer. Before long, Orlac begins to notice his new hands seem to have a mind of their own. The story is familiar. You may have any one of a number of remakes including “Mad Love” from 1935, that starred Peter Lorre as the surgeon, Mel Ferrar and Christopher Lee starred in a 1960 version and writer/director Oliver Stone gave the whole thing a new twist in 1981 when comic book artist Michael Caine loses his hand in an accident and the severed hand takes on a life of its own.
Here’s the original 1924 version, still the best, a film that further cemented young Conrad Veidt as a man to watch in European Cinema, from 1924, The Hands of Orlac.
Epilogue – Hi, I’m Ben Mankowicz back again for Robert Osborne. “Hands of Orlac” was made in Germany in 1924 but not released here in the States until 1928. By that time Star Conrad Veidt had already made his first trip to Hollywood where he starred in a few American films like the “Beloved Rogue” in 1927 and “The Man Who Laughs” the following year. Then Veidt returned to German to star in the first talkie made there but then things began to go badly in Germany. Hitler came to power 1n 1933 and Veidt soon left Germany along with his Jewish wife and moved to England where he built a new life and became a British Citizen. Up next today’s salute to Conrad Veidt continues with a film Veidt made for pioneering British producer Alexander Korda.
10:00 PM The Thief of Bagdad (’40) - Introduction – Hi! I’m Ben Mankowicz sitting in all this month for Robert Osborne. Thanks for joining us tonight where we are paying tribute to the great German actor, Conrad Veidt. Although Veidt made many now legendary films in Germany, he is best known for his role as the dangerous and sinister Major Henryk Strasser in “Casablanca”, a film we have coming up later tonight. But first we have Veidt in another one of his Hollywood roles, an Arabian Nights film made in 1940. This did not start out as a Hollywood production. The project actually started in England spearheaded by British Producer Alexander Korda. But England was at war with Germany at the time and London was being bombed regularly making it a pretty dangerous place to shot a movie so not long into production, Korda move the entire project to the U.S.
Our Star of the Day, Conrad Veidt, plays the bad guy. He’s a wicked, magical wizard who casts evil spells. There are princes and princesses, magical lamps, genies, flying carpets, everything you’d expect from a fantasy called Arabian Nights all of it shot in Technicolor. From 1940, also starring the Indian-born actor known only as Sabu, here’s our Star of the Day, Conrad Veidt in “The Thief of Baghdad”
Epilogue – Hi! I’m Ben Mankowicz. Robert is on vacation so I’m filling in this month. When German bombing missions made shooting this movie in London too dangerous, Conrad Veidt traveled along with the rest of the cast to Hollywood where production was completed. Veidt had been there before making a few American silent pictures in the 1920s but now he was back and it was a brand new world of talking pictures. Fortunately during the 1940s Hollywood always needed good actors who could convincingly play Germans, more specifically Nazis and Veidt found himself working regularly and putting his accent to good use.
Coming up in just a few minutes our “Summer Under The Stars” tribute to Conrad Veidt continues with the role he’s best known for today in what is generally considered to be one of the best movies ever made.
12:00 AM Casablanca (’42) – Introduction – (beginning of intro lost because my dvr started recording about 5 seconds after TCM began the movie) . . .Veidt eventually made his way to Hollywood landing a role and a memorably villainous performance in the Oscar winning Best Picture of 1943, a movie that also happens to be one of the best pictures ever. The film is, of course, “Casablanca” and we have it coming up right now.
The story is set during the early part of World War II telling the story of an American ex-patriot, played by Humphrey Bogart, living in the North African city of Casablanca and telling with drama, intrigue, romance, suspense, double-crossing, black marketeering, corruption, a pitch battle of good vs. evil, and a love triangle. When a mysterious woman from Bogart’s past arrives in town it sets off a chain of events that could change the course of the war. The cast also features Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henried who are, with Bogart, your heroes and every movie hero needs a great movie villain and that villain, a Nazi Officer, is played by the man we’re honoring today, Conrad Veidt.
That Veidt is best remembered today for playing a Nazi is ironic because he had to flee Germany for Hollywood when the Nazis came in 1933. When the Nazis were consolidating power, Veidt became an outspoken opponent and when it became clear he couldn’t do anything to stop them, Veidt and his new wife who was Jewish packed up and left the country heading first to England and ultimately on to Hollywood where he lived until his death.
From Director Michael Curtiz in 1943, here’s our star of the day, Conrad Veidt playing a character he would have despised in one of Hollywood’s most enduring classics, “Casablanca”
Epilogue – Hi! Ben Mankewicz here back for Robert Osborne while he’s on vacation. Casablanca was a huge hit for Warner Bros. It won the Oscar for best picture. But sadly, the man we’re honoring today, German actor Conrad Veidt, didn’t survive long enough to enjoy all the success. Veidt died of a heart attack. . .(last part of epilogue lost because my DVR stopped before epilogue was completely over. Although I will say one thing, my brother was in the living room as I was going over the epilogue and when Mankewicz said that Connie died before Casablanca was released he said in a very disappointed tone of voice “ah, no! What happened?” and I explained to him the story and hearing that really brought him down.)
1:45 AM Nazi Agent (’42) – Introduction – Hi! I’m Ben Mankewicz here all this month for Robert Osborne while he’s on vacation. Today, as part of our Summer Under the Stars festival, we’ve been saluting the career of German-born actor Conrad Veidt. Just previously tonight we say Veidt in the role he’s best remembered for, as a villainous Nazi officer in the Hollywood classic “Casablanca”. Up next, we’ve got the film Veidt made immediately prior to “Casablanca”, one that also finds him playing a Nazi.
Actually Veidt has two roles in the film because he plays identical twins living in America but one a Nazi, the other loyal to his adopted country. From MGM in 1942, it’s “Nazi Agent”.
In a case of life imitating art this film about Germans living in America during World War II stars several Germans who were living in America during World War II. Not only star Conrad Veidt but also his co-stars Frank Reicher and Martin Kosleck. They all shared a potent hatred for the Nazis. As a matter of fact, both Veidt and Kosleck fled Germany because the Nazis had come to power and once they got to Hollywood, they never seemed to lack for work especially when every studio in town were making movies where Nazis were the villains. When it came to playing these kinds of roles, most of Hollywood German-born actors didn’t seem to mind the typecasting. Of the Nazis, Veidt said at the time and this is a quote “They are villains and I want to do what I can to make that known to the world.” From director Jules Dassin in 1942, here’s our Star of the Day playing a dual role in “Nazi Agent”.
Epilogue – Hi! I’m Ben Mankewicz back again for Robert Osborne. That was German-born actor Conrad Veidt in a dual role of both Otto Becker and his Nazi brother Hugo. This is one of the rare Hollywood films where Veidt had top billing. At this point in his career he was mostly playing second leads and supporting roles but it wasn’t always that way. Many years earlier, Veidt had been one of the biggest stars in Europe playing roles in some of the most influential German silent films. Coming up next we’ve got Veidt in one of those movies. A German Expressionist classic and one of the creepiest silent films ever made.
And as a interesting footnote, I finished up typing the epilogue to “Nazi Agent” and I said to my mother “OK, you can delete it now if you want. I’ve got what I need.” And she responded “No! What I want is to see it again!” (We both watched it Saturday night). Well as a good daughter would I refuse something my dear mother wanted?
3:15 AM The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (’19) – This is a film I wish Victoria, at least, had been over to see. She is into zombies and I’ve always wondered if I simply referred to Caesar as a zombie (as he has been compared to many times) instead of a somnambulant, maybe she’d get excited and want to see the film and not get scared if she did. The fact that she is watching is zombie film would make her too excited to be scared
4:30 AM Dark Journey (’37) – No introduction or epilogue with this one either but I must say, the version I have was a free download from archive.com and compared to the video quality that I saw on TCM I am just going to have to buckle down and spend the cash. Archive’s version has terrible quality compared to TCM’s version. And as Monique said the ending was slightly altered from Archive’s version.
