Say whatever awful things that you want about Adolf Hitler, because there’s little question that he deserves every sling and arrow that you want to throw in his direction, but you can’t say he wasn’t a fascinating individual. “Hitler: The Last Ten Days” is a film that wants to be just as fascinating, but it fails at least as often as it succeeds. The biggest ongoing problem is that, while Sir Alec Guinness unquestionably has the acting chops to pull off the role of the Fuhrer, his decision to stick with his own accent rather than a German one never fails to be distracting. (Don’t tell me it’s because he couldn’t do a German accent!) Setting aside the accent, Guinness’s performance is solid, both in his ferocious outbursts as well as his chilling calm, such as when he makes the suggestion that the Hitler Youth be sent to the front lines. Ennio de Concini selected a slightly strange tone for the film, however, going for humor in the oddest moments. For instance, when Hitler marries Eva Braun (Doris Kunstmann), the officiant nervously asks Hitler, as required by the text, “Are you Aryan?” Later, after Hitler and Braun commit suicide, the first thing the Fuhrer’s subordinates do is light up cigarettes, since Hitler didn’t allow smoking. Granted, these things are based on fact, but the inherent darkness of the events are inappropriately lightened up at times, such as when de Concini chooses to have the post-suicide smoke-fest scored to cheery, upbeat music, almost as if to say, “Hey, Hitler’s dead! Time to party!” “Hitler: The Last Ten Days” is worth seeing, but if you want a film about Hitler with a tone that more accurately matches the subject matter, better you should pick up Oliver Hirschbiegel’s “Downfall.”
