It Happened Here
Encyclopedia
It Happened Here is a 1966
British
film
, directed by Kevin Brownlow
and Andrew Mollo
. It is set in an alternate history
in which Nazi Germany
successfully invades and occupies the United Kingdom during World War II
.
took place in 1940 after the retreat from Dunkirk
". After months of fierce resistance and brutal reprisals, the occupying forces manage to restore order, largely suppressing the resistance movement.
However, due to demands from the Ural Mountains front
, most German troops are eventually removed from Western Europe, and the garrison
ing of Britain is largely carried out by local volunteers to the German army and the SS
. England appears to be governed by the British Union of Fascists
(the situation in the rest of the British Isles is unclear but presumably similar); the followers are referred to as "Blackshirts
", wear uniforms with the Flash and Circle
, and a framed portrait of Oswald Mosley
appears in a government building, alongside one of Adolf Hitler
.
Meanwhile, the United States
, having entered the war, stations its U.S. Seventh Fleet
off Ireland
and begins bombing raids on the southwest coast of England, as well as supplying men and equipment to a resurgent partisan
movement. Whether Ireland
itself is occupied by the Americans or Germans or manages to remain neutral
is not made clear.
, Pauline. Following an upsurge in partisan activity in her area, she is forcibly evacuated from her village by the Germans and their collaborators and witnesses an attack on the German forces by a group of British partisans, during which a number of her friends from the village are killed in the crossfire. The attack (and more particularly the deaths) later influences her views and decisions.
She is evacuated to London
, where she reluctantly becomes a collaborator, joining the medical wing of the "Immediate Action Organisation" (IAO), a kind of quasi-paramilitary medical corps and is re-trained as an ambulance attendant. Although at first reluctant and intent on remaining apolitical, Pauline begins to show the effects of fascist indoctrination
in her behaviour. It is a reunion with old friends (an antifascist doctor and his wife) that gives Pauline pause and when she subsequently discovers they are harbouring an injured partisan she reluctantly agrees to help.
Gradually Pauline learns more about the impacts of the German occupation and she sees her friends arrested. The discovery of her association with the antifascist couple by her superiors in the IAO leads to her demotion and transfer to another part of the country. She welcomes the move at first, as her new job appears to have less of the paramilitary trappings. However Pauline discovers that she has unwittingly taken part in a forced euthanasia programme
and killed a group of foreign forced labourers who had contracted tuberculosis
.
The film ends with Pauline being arrested after protesting and refusing to continue but before she can be put on trial, she is captured and agrees to work for the British Army as they try to liberate Great Britain with the help of arriving American troops. In the finale, Pauline tends wounded while, out of her view, a large group of soldiers from the British Legion
of the Wehrmacht who had surrendered are shot, reminiscent of a Wehrmacht massacre of civilians earlier in the film.
and Andrew Mollo
. Kevin Brownlow
would later became a prominent film historian and Andrew Mollo
would become a leading military historian. Brownlow developed the concept of the film when he was 18-year old, in 1956. He turned to Mollo, a 16-year-old history buff, to help him with the design of costumes and sets. Mollo was intrigued by the project, and became his collaborator.
The film was in the making for the next eight years, which the Guinness Book of World Records (as of 2003) calls the longest ever production schedule. It was shot in black and white on 16 mm film, giving it a grainy, newsreel feel (no actual stock footage was used). The audio quality (and lighting) on the opening reel is rather poor, which makes the dialog difficult to follow for the first few minutes. It had a cast of hundreds, all volunteers, with several professional actors among them: Sebastian Shaw
, Reginald Marsh
, Stella Kemball, Ralph Wilson, Bart Allison, John Herrington, Nicolette Bernard, Nicholas Moore and Frank Gardner. (A number of the extras in the film were members of British science fiction fandom
, and a portion was previewed at a science fiction convention
in Peterborough
.)
The key role of Pauline, a nurse evacuated from Salisbury to London, was played by Pauline Murray. According to DVD Times, Murray worked as a doctor's receptionist. DVD Times says that it is "...interesting to compare her to other British leading ladies of the time", in that the 1960s "‘Free Cinema’ movement spill[ed] over into features and a British New Wave...[led to]...films such as A Taste of Honey and Poor Cow. (...) Tony Richardson’s Woodfall Film Productions (central to the new wave) stumped up the money to allow It Happened Here to be completed on a less amateur level, yet the results are quite different. Murray may share the resilience of a Rita Tushingham
or Carol White
, but she’s a tougher breed, altogether more human."
In a contemporary review of a showing of the film at the Little Carnegie theatre at 146 West 57th Street in New York City
, published in The New York Times
on August 9, 1966, titled "If the Finest Hour Had Failed: Little Carnegie Offers 'It Happened Here' Occupation of England by Nazis Depicted", Bosley Crowther wrote "The acting by unfamiliar people is beautifully natural and restrained, particularly that of Pauline Murray in the principal role. Through her human and subtle generation of an ungrudging sympathy, one becomes involved in her dilemma and is caught up all the way in the despair, uncertainty and terror of her experiences."
Stanley Kubrick
, who was intrigued by the project, donated film stock from Dr. Strangelove
to Brownlow to help him finish the film. Most of the equipment used in the production was borrowed. Veteran wartime BBC radio announcers Alvar Lidell
and John Snagge
gave their services free to voice reconstructed newsreels and radio broadcasts. Director Tony Richardson
helped to pay for the final production. Though the cast was almost entirely amateur, It Happened Here helped to launch the career of its cinematographer, Peter Suschitzky
, who went on to work on such films as The Rocky Horror Picture Show
and The Empire Strikes Back.
s in the story were not normally Nazis but their British collaborators. The film seemed to be saying that fascism can rise anywhere under the right circumstances, and that people everywhere could fall under its spell. Research prior to the film from various Nazi-occupied territories (including the Channel Islands
) suggested that this was indeed the case.
Jewish groups protested against the inclusion of seven minutes of footage of British postwar fascist leader Colin Jordan
, speaking against the Jews and for euthanasia. In response, this was cut from the original release, though it was restored thirty years later, after Brownlow regained the rights to the film. Critics claimed the inclusion of this material gives a platform to unapologetic neo-Nazis
despite the film's strongly anti-Nazi theme.
, ISBN 978-1-905796-10-6) describes the making of the film
It Happened Here, and the subsequent reception that the film received. In addition to explaining how two teenage boys made a feature film, it also explores the social issues
raised by the movie. Brownlow had allowed genuine British fascists to play themselves in the film, which raised the hostility of Jewish organizations. The book contains almost 100 pictures, mostly stills from the film, and an introduction by David Robinson
.
1966 in film
The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...
British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, directed by Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent...
and Andrew Mollo
Andrew Mollo
Andrew Mollo is a British expert on military uniforms that has led him into a career in motion pictures and as an author of various books on military uniforms...
. It is set in an alternate history
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
in which Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
successfully invades and occupies the United Kingdom during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Setting
The film opens with the statement: "The German invasion of EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
took place in 1940 after the retreat from Dunkirk
Battle of Dunkirk
The Battle of Dunkirk was a battle in the Second World War between the Allies and Germany. A part of the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and allied forces in Europe from 26 May–4 June 1940.After the Phoney War, the Battle of...
". After months of fierce resistance and brutal reprisals, the occupying forces manage to restore order, largely suppressing the resistance movement.
However, due to demands from the Ural Mountains front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
, most German troops are eventually removed from Western Europe, and the garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
ing of Britain is largely carried out by local volunteers to the German army and the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
. England appears to be governed by the British Union of Fascists
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
(the situation in the rest of the British Isles is unclear but presumably similar); the followers are referred to as "Blackshirts
Blackshirts
The Blackshirts were Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy during the period immediately following World War I and until the end of World War II...
", wear uniforms with the Flash and Circle
Flash and Circle
The Flash and Circle is the second and best known symbol of the British Union of Fascists. It was chosen to represent "action within unity"...
, and a framed portrait of Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
appears in a government building, alongside one of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
.
Meanwhile, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, having entered the war, stations its U.S. Seventh Fleet
United States Seventh Fleet
The Seventh Fleet is the United States Navy's permanent forward projection force based in Yokosuka, Japan, with units positioned near Japan and South Korea. It is a component fleet force under the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of the forward-deployed U.S. fleets, with...
off Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and begins bombing raids on the southwest coast of England, as well as supplying men and equipment to a resurgent partisan
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
movement. Whether Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
itself is occupied by the Americans or Germans or manages to remain neutral
Irish neutrality during World War II
The policy of Irish neutrality during World War II was adopted by Dáil Éireann at the instigation of Éamon de Valera, its Taoiseach upon the outbreak of hostilities in Europe and maintained throughout the conflict. De Valera refrained from joining either the Allies or Axis powers...
is not made clear.
Plot
Set in 1944-1945, the story focuses on an apolitical Irish district nurseDistrict nurse
District Nurses are senior nurses who manage care within the community, leading teams of community nurses and support workers. Typically much of their work involves visiting house-bound patients to provide advice and care, for example, palliative care, wound management, catheter and continence...
, Pauline. Following an upsurge in partisan activity in her area, she is forcibly evacuated from her village by the Germans and their collaborators and witnesses an attack on the German forces by a group of British partisans, during which a number of her friends from the village are killed in the crossfire. The attack (and more particularly the deaths) later influences her views and decisions.
She is evacuated to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where she reluctantly becomes a collaborator, joining the medical wing of the "Immediate Action Organisation" (IAO), a kind of quasi-paramilitary medical corps and is re-trained as an ambulance attendant. Although at first reluctant and intent on remaining apolitical, Pauline begins to show the effects of fascist indoctrination
Indoctrination
Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology . It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned...
in her behaviour. It is a reunion with old friends (an antifascist doctor and his wife) that gives Pauline pause and when she subsequently discovers they are harbouring an injured partisan she reluctantly agrees to help.
Gradually Pauline learns more about the impacts of the German occupation and she sees her friends arrested. The discovery of her association with the antifascist couple by her superiors in the IAO leads to her demotion and transfer to another part of the country. She welcomes the move at first, as her new job appears to have less of the paramilitary trappings. However Pauline discovers that she has unwittingly taken part in a forced euthanasia programme
Action T4
Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...
and killed a group of foreign forced labourers who had contracted tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
.
The film ends with Pauline being arrested after protesting and refusing to continue but before she can be put on trial, she is captured and agrees to work for the British Army as they try to liberate Great Britain with the help of arriving American troops. In the finale, Pauline tends wounded while, out of her view, a large group of soldiers from the British Legion
British Free Corps
During World War II, the British Free Corps was a unit of the consisting of British and Dominion prisoners of war who had been recruited by the Nazis. The unit was originally known as The Legion of St...
of the Wehrmacht who had surrendered are shot, reminiscent of a Wehrmacht massacre of civilians earlier in the film.
Production and staff
The film was directed by Kevin BrownlowKevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent...
and Andrew Mollo
Andrew Mollo
Andrew Mollo is a British expert on military uniforms that has led him into a career in motion pictures and as an author of various books on military uniforms...
. Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent...
would later became a prominent film historian and Andrew Mollo
Andrew Mollo
Andrew Mollo is a British expert on military uniforms that has led him into a career in motion pictures and as an author of various books on military uniforms...
would become a leading military historian. Brownlow developed the concept of the film when he was 18-year old, in 1956. He turned to Mollo, a 16-year-old history buff, to help him with the design of costumes and sets. Mollo was intrigued by the project, and became his collaborator.
The film was in the making for the next eight years, which the Guinness Book of World Records (as of 2003) calls the longest ever production schedule. It was shot in black and white on 16 mm film, giving it a grainy, newsreel feel (no actual stock footage was used). The audio quality (and lighting) on the opening reel is rather poor, which makes the dialog difficult to follow for the first few minutes. It had a cast of hundreds, all volunteers, with several professional actors among them: Sebastian Shaw
Sebastian Shaw (actor)
Sebastian Lewis Shaw was an English actor, director, novelist, playwright and poet. During his 65-year career, Shaw appeared in dozens of stage performances and more than 40 film and television productions....
, Reginald Marsh
Reginald Marsh (actor)
Reginald Marsh was an English actor who is best remembered for starring in many British sitcoms from the 1970s onwards.-Early life and career:...
, Stella Kemball, Ralph Wilson, Bart Allison, John Herrington, Nicolette Bernard, Nicholas Moore and Frank Gardner. (A number of the extras in the film were members of British science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
, and a portion was previewed at a science fiction convention
Science fiction convention
Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of various forms of speculative fiction including science fiction and fantasy. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expression as movies and...
in Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
.)
The key role of Pauline, a nurse evacuated from Salisbury to London, was played by Pauline Murray. According to DVD Times, Murray worked as a doctor's receptionist. DVD Times says that it is "...interesting to compare her to other British leading ladies of the time", in that the 1960s "‘Free Cinema’ movement spill[ed] over into features and a British New Wave...[led to]...films such as A Taste of Honey and Poor Cow. (...) Tony Richardson’s Woodfall Film Productions (central to the new wave) stumped up the money to allow It Happened Here to be completed on a less amateur level, yet the results are quite different. Murray may share the resilience of a Rita Tushingham
Rita Tushingham
-Career:Born in Liverpool, Tushingham began her career as a stage actress at the Liverpool Playhouse. Her screen debut was in A Taste of Honey...
or Carol White
Carol White
Carol White was a British actress.She achieved notability for her performances in the television play Cathy Come Home and the films Poor Cow and I'll Never Forget What's'isname , but alcoholism and drug abuse damaged her career, and from the early 1970s she worked infrequently.-Life and...
, but she’s a tougher breed, altogether more human."
In a contemporary review of a showing of the film at the Little Carnegie theatre at 146 West 57th Street in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, published in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
on August 9, 1966, titled "If the Finest Hour Had Failed: Little Carnegie Offers 'It Happened Here' Occupation of England by Nazis Depicted", Bosley Crowther wrote "The acting by unfamiliar people is beautifully natural and restrained, particularly that of Pauline Murray in the principal role. Through her human and subtle generation of an ungrudging sympathy, one becomes involved in her dilemma and is caught up all the way in the despair, uncertainty and terror of her experiences."
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
, who was intrigued by the project, donated film stock from Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, commonly known as Dr. Strangelove, is a 1964 black comedy film which satirizes the nuclear scare. It was directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, and featuring Sterling...
to Brownlow to help him finish the film. Most of the equipment used in the production was borrowed. Veteran wartime BBC radio announcers Alvar Lidell
Alvar Lidell
Tord Alvar Quan Lidell was a BBC radio announcer and newsreader.Lidell was born in Wimbledon Park, Surrey, to Swedish parents. His father John Adrian Lidell was a timber importer; his mother was Gertrud Lidell . Lidell attended King's College School, Wimbledon and Exeter College, Oxford...
and John Snagge
John Snagge
John Derrick Mordaunt Snagge OBE was a long-time British newsreader and commentator on BBC Radio.Born in Chelsea, London, he was educated at Winchester College and Pembroke College, Oxford, where he obtained a degree in law. He then joined the BBC, taking up the position of assistant director at...
gave their services free to voice reconstructed newsreels and radio broadcasts. Director Tony Richardson
Tony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
helped to pay for the final production. Though the cast was almost entirely amateur, It Happened Here helped to launch the career of its cinematographer, Peter Suschitzky
Peter Suschitzky
Peter Suschitzky BSC, A.S.C. cinematographer born in Warsaw and raised in London, the son of the cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky BSC. Among his most known work as director of photography are Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and the later films of David Cronenberg...
, who went on to work on such films as The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
and The Empire Strikes Back.
Release and criticism
After eight years of production, the film's initial release was stormy. Many people were upset by the idea that the villainVillain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
s in the story were not normally Nazis but their British collaborators. The film seemed to be saying that fascism can rise anywhere under the right circumstances, and that people everywhere could fall under its spell. Research prior to the film from various Nazi-occupied territories (including the Channel Islands
Occupation of the Channel Islands
The Channel Islands were occupied by Nazi Germany for much of World War II, from 30 June 1940 until the liberation on 9 May 1945. The Channel Islands are two British Crown dependencies and include the bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey as well as the smaller islands of Alderney and Sark...
) suggested that this was indeed the case.
Jewish groups protested against the inclusion of seven minutes of footage of British postwar fascist leader Colin Jordan
Colin Jordan
John Colin Campbell Jordan was a leading figure in postwar Neo-Nazism in Britain. In the far-right nationalist circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitly 'Nazi' inclination in his open use of the styles and symbols of the Third Reich.Through organisations such as the National...
, speaking against the Jews and for euthanasia. In response, this was cut from the original release, though it was restored thirty years later, after Brownlow regained the rights to the film. Critics claimed the inclusion of this material gives a platform to unapologetic neo-Nazis
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
despite the film's strongly anti-Nazi theme.
Book
In 1968 Brownlow published the story of how the film got made under the title How it Happened Here. The book has been reissued in updated form in 2005 (UK) and 2007 (United States). How It Happened Here (re-issued March 2007, by The UKA PressThe UKA Press
The UKA Press is an independent small publisher based in the United Kingdom. Since its launch in January 2004, it has published poetry, novels, short story collections and nonfiction titles...
, ISBN 978-1-905796-10-6) describes the making of the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
It Happened Here, and the subsequent reception that the film received. In addition to explaining how two teenage boys made a feature film, it also explores the social issues
Social issues
Social issues are controversial issues which relate to people's personal lives and interactions. Social issues are distinguished from economic issues...
raised by the movie. Brownlow had allowed genuine British fascists to play themselves in the film, which raised the hostility of Jewish organizations. The book contains almost 100 pictures, mostly stills from the film, and an introduction by David Robinson
David Robinson (film critic and author)
David Robinson is a British film critic and author. He started writing for Sight and Sound and the Monthly Film Bulletin in the 1950s, becoming Assistant Editor of Sight and Sound and Editor of the Monthly Film Bulletin in 1957-1958...
.