The Nightmare Years (1989)
Director: Anthony Page.
Starring: Frances Barber (Helga Bauer), Bill Bailey (Knick Knickerbocker), Péter Benkö (Putzi's Agent), Bruce Boa (Nick Roosevelt), Ottilia Borbáth (Nurse), Flavio Bucci (Dr. Fleischmann), Ken Butler (Bob Best), Georges Claisse (Dr. Obermann), Antal Cserna (Baggage Inspector), Angéla Császár (Sarah Schneider), Mirella D'Angelo (Karin), Gillian Eaton (Agnes Kickerbocker), Keith Edwards (Ralph Barnes), Anna Fehér (Nazi Woman), Michael Fitzpatrick (Jeff Higgins), Anna Galiena (Ruth Klauber), Zoltán Gera (Walter Schwertfader), György Gonda (Shirer's Agent), Walter Gotell (Gen. Von Fritsch), Garrick Hagon (Edward R. Murrow), Günther Maria Halmer (Kellenbach), Alexander Harborne (Ernest Schneider), Anne Harrington (Anne), Jerry Harte (Seymour Berkson), Basil Henson (Lord Stanwood), Greg Hicks (Sculptor), Courtney Ingersoll (Petra Schneider), Donna Ingersoll (Harriet), Frederick Jaeger (Wilfred Bade), Peter Jeffrey (Norman Ebbutt), Marthe Keller (Tess Shirer), Cecelia Kindelan (Eileen Shirer), Xaver Kreichbaum (Paul Schneider), Ronald Lacey (Emil Lugers), Antal Leisen (Vendor). Andras Marlon (Emil Maas), Lajos Mezey (Sweeper), Christopher Muncke (Peter Butler), Gábor Nagy (Lt. Wolfe), Ronald Pickup (Putzi Hanfstaengl), Gábor Reviczky (Col. Keller), Shane Rimmer (Ambassador Dodd), David Sibley (Jan Muller), Kurtwood Smith (Dr. Josef Goebbels), John Steiner (Reverend Lenz), Kati Sír (Ellen Wilkinson), Pip Torrens (Major Radford), Tamás Tóth (Censor), Vara Venezei (Mrs. Lenz), Sam Waterston (Bill Shirer), Steven White (Pete), Peter Whitman (Victor Schneider), Michael Wolf (Herman Goering), Madeleine Wynne(Martha Dodd).
tv mini-series: story of American journalist William Shirer observes up close the increasing extremism of the Nazis; Shier wrote the book "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"
Spoiler Warning: below is a summary of the entire film.
There are scenes of the German public enthusiastically enjoying watching various Fascist parades.
He was a reporter for the old Universal News Service and headed for Berlin. Hitler had just taken power. He and his wife are on a train. The wife is going over the photos she took. The train stops suddenly. A German soldier in their cabin suggests they put away their photographs or it will draw the attention of the authorities. He gets up and starts to go out. The soldier tries to warn him not to go out of cabin, but the newspaper man ignores his advise. He opens a window and is yelled at by the SS.
He goes into the bathroom and looks out an upper window. He sees the SS pushing men down the trail by the track. The German soldier tells the wife that they have to be really cautious while they are in Germany and that goes double for journalists. He adds that Germany has made such great economic progress, but he wonders "at what cost"?
He ignores a sign saying stay out of an area and just goes underneath it. He opens the door of the compartment and sees a train car used as a jail cell. The men there tell him that they were forced to get onto this train. And they want to know where are they going? He says Berlin. They ask him to tell Reverend Lenz in Berlin about what has happened to them. An SS man pulls the reporter back into the train car and asks to see his papers. Shrier asks him who are those people he saw? The SS man says they are criminals and are of no concern. He adds that in Germany the people obey signs. Then he tells him to get back to his train cabin.
Pulling into the station Bill is watched by two SS men. His wife warns him about this and they walk away. The SS men follow them. Bill is looking for his friend Norman. They greet each other and then get into a taxi. Norman says that he saw the SS men had decided not to stand on the platform. He says he is on the SS list of dangerous characters. He advises Bill to stay away from the SS. Bill tells Norman about the 9 or 10 men who were man-handled by the SS. They were priests. Norman suggests that they forget the whole thing. There is no censorship in Germany, but the authorities get a report on everything that the journalists write.
At the motel Norman comes to Bill's room. He says he wants to introduce him and his wife to some important people. One of the people they should meet is Putzi, who is head of the foreign press department of the Ministry of Propaganda. He is really funny and sees himself as an artist.
In the hotel restaurant Bill runs into an old female colleague, Agnes Knickerbocker. They worked together for three years in Spain. Agnes goes over to Putzi at the piano and tells him to stop all that racket. Now Bill meets Peter Butler, Bureau Chief of International News Service. Peter asks Bill if he is one of those who condemn the National Socialists out of hand? Bill says he just got here. Peter tells him that Dorothy Thompson was just thrown out of Germany for writing things that weren't true. Then he meets Ralph Barnes of the Herald Tribune. And. finally, Bill and Cass get to meet Putzi, who tells them that he is an old personal friend of Hitler. His family used to help him out back in the day when he was very poor.
Bill asks what did Dorothy write that was so objectionable? A blonde named Martha says that actually Dorothy was the third reporter to be sent packing. Putzi says she wrote a book full of slanders against Hitler. He pulls Bill aside and tells him that those "priests" really were just criminals. There's not story there. He invites Bill over to see the the Ministry of Propaganda and Bill accepts. They will see each other in the morning.
Walking over to an outdoor night clubwith the other reporters Bill asks how did Putzi find out so fast? Norman says the lieutenant on the train most likely told the Gestapo and the Gestapo told the Ministry of Propaganda, which then informed Putzi. Norman warns him to watch what he says in front of Peter because he has close ties with the Nazis. In fact, Bill should watch what he says in front of everybody and anybody, unless he knows the people well.
Back in the hotel Cass tells Bill that everyday a Daily Press Orders is issued by the Ministry of Propaganda. The sheets gives orders to editors all over Germany of what stories can be printed or not and the editors can be thrown into jail if they don't obey them. If this isn't censorship, then what is?
Bill goes to see Putzi. He gives Bill a description for each of the 9 or 10 men that were the ones in the prisoner car. Bill looks over the information and says these are not the men he saw. The men he saw were middle-class men and one of the men said that they were priests. Now Bill asks to see the Daily Press Orders for the days around the day Bill saw the prisoners on the train. Putzi says that Bill is abusing his hospitality. He just wanted to show Bill how the Ministry of Propaganda does its work. Bill says he still wants to hear about the Ministry itself.
Cass asks if Putzi could get her and Bill a nice apartment that would be cheaper than the expensive hotel. Her colleagues tell her not to asks Putzi because she would get an apartment complete with all types of microphones. The U.S. Embassy has a list of suitable apartments. They meet with a man from the American Embassy. They suggest that the United States government start throwing out German reporters like Germany is throwing out American reporters. The official says he will suggest this to Putzi, but only as part of a warning of how serious is this tossing out American journalists for not telling the truth.
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