marcslope Most of the anti-Nazi propaganda coming out of Hollywood circa 1943 was set on the battlefront; this RKO programmer avoids the battlefield and limits the military to stock footage, but it's more powerful and engaging than many a contemporary war picture. Set at an American school in Berlin, it takes a while to establish why the two young leads (Bonita Granville and Tim Holt) speak in unaffected English while all around them sport comic-Nazi accents, and it's a little jarring at first to see the Hitler-youth children behaving like sitcom Americans ("Aw gee, can't we study outside?"). But once the propagandistic plot points kick into gear it becomes a real rouser, with the good American teacher (Kent Smith) trying to track down Granville through her appropriation, exploitation, and eventual sad end with the Nazis. It's surprisingly brutal in spots, and it's not afraid to have an extremely downbeat ending for its day. Director Edward Dmytryk and his DP appear to have actually studied Leni Riefenstahl for some of their compositions, and while the morality is very black-and-white (Nazi=evil, everybody else=good), for once that doesn't feel simplistic.

MartinHafer I love watching old American and British WWII propaganda films. Sure, they were often rather one-dimensional or at times ridiculous and some people tend to think that the word "propaganda" is a bad thing, but in this case these films were positive in that they helped to unify the country and get us behind the war effort. Yes, it's true some of them had horrible stereotypes and images of the enemy (particularly how the Japanese were portrayed as almost subhuman), but this was war and, unfortunately, some of the worst images these films showed were BETTER than the real enemy! The film HITLER'S CHILDREN was a very well-made film from RKO that told a fictional story about some young people--in particular, Bonita Granville and Tim Holt, who were caught up in the hysteria and evil of the Hitler youth and other organizations targeting children. At first, the story is told from the viewpoint of the fine character actor Kent Smith. Then, later in the film it switches to Granville, as she is forced into a German indoctrination camp and wants desperately to escape. Otto Kruger enters the story as a pretty dumb Nazi officer who has high hopes for Granville and Holt in the party. However, his hopes are dashed when Granville escapes. What happens next, I'll leave to you so I won't spoil the film. However, the weakest aspect of the film involves the ending with young Holt--this just never would have or could have happened--but it's very entertaining nevertheless.While this film is much truer in its depiction of the Germans than most contemporary films, the film actually in some ways makes the Nazis look a little dumber and less evil than they actually were. The excellent acting of H. B. Warner as the Bishop is great, except we found out after the war that any clergy speaking out against the regime would have been sent to a concentration camp or killed--the Bishop's comments to the Nazi officers or his sermon denouncing the party never would have gone unpunished.Still an effective and captivating film.

xaggurat This movie's message or slogan could be "Inside every Nazi there's an American trying to get out".Another what you see is what you get experience. Propaganda film made for the Allied war effort. If you read one sentence about the movie from a DVD back cover you will know what will happen and why. No surprises here.The list why this kind of thing never actually happened in real history is long. The Nazis weren't this gullible nor interested in special cases. They were petty when they looked for criminalizing details about people but grand when it came to slaying them.

artroraback I can see how this film would have created a stir when it was released in 1942.World War II was being fought and the Germans dominated Europe. The film is the story of two star crossed lovers: an American girl with German blood and an unfortunate young man who rises from the Hitler Youth and becomes a colonel in the Gestapo. Kind of an unusual take on the boy meets girl story but a good film just the same. Recommended for history buffs and Tim Holt fans.