Thursday, January 02, 2020

Movie review - "Verboten" (1959) **

No one's favourite Sam Fuller film, at least not to my knowledge - with baby boomer film critics you never know. It's they who elevated Fuller to demi-God status, attracted to his colourful personality and background, his excellent copy, the clear evidence of authorship in his movies.

This has James Best, Roscoe from The Dukes of Hazard, as an American soldier who marries a German girl after World War Two and gets involved in fighting Nazis who want Hitler to come back. There's lots of speeches about how bad the Nazis were and how Germany is trying to get back on track.

I mean it's of interest - its striking to see a relatively old film take on the Concentration Camps and the Holocaust head on, and also depict the Nuremberg trials (albeit via press footage - this is a low budget movie). The acting is variable and the low budget hurts this one. It also feels a little bit untrue - were the werwolves that active after World War Two? That much of a threat? They always felt like an idea that was given more prominence than they deserved due to the efforts of writers of paperback thrillers.

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