Black Fox

A documentary produced by Jack Le Vien and narrated by Marlene Dietrich, this semi-allegorical account of Adolf Hitler's rise and fall offers no surprises but reiterates some interesting points. Selected factual details of his career are projected against the backcloth of Goethe's adaptation of the fable of Reynard the Fox - 'who some would say was a liar, a thief and a murderer - but often spoke of God'. Hitler is placed firmly and intelligently in his historical context, and is shown to be as much a product of his time (the world recession, Versailles, the foundering of the German democratic experiment) as of his personal genius. In other words, the German people and the world got the dictator they deserved, and the German people at least were glad to have him.