The Devil Strikes at Night

The Devil Strikes at Night (German: Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam) is a 1957 West German crime thriller film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Claus Holm, Mario Adorf and Hannes Messemer.[1][2][3] The film noir is based on the true story of Bruno Lüdke. It was shot at the Baldham Studios. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Gottfried Will and Rolf Zehetbauer. Location shooting took place in Berlin and Munich. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,[4] as well as winning German Film Award for Best Fiction Film in its native country.

The Devil Strikes at Night
Original German poster
Directed byRobert Siodmak
Written by
Produced byRobert Siodmak
Walter Traut
Claus Hardt
Starring
CinematographyGeorg Krause
Edited byWalter Boos
Music bySiegfried Franz
Production
company
Divina Film
Distributed byGloria Film
Release date
  • 19 September 1957 (1957-09-19)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryWest Germany
LanguageGerman

Synopsis

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The film is a highly fictionalized account of the hunt for a serial killer, as he murders women during the last year or two of World War II. In one of the crimes, a man is arrested who is obviously innocent. An investigator begins to unravel a thread leading to the real killer, but becomes frustrated by Nazi authorities who believe that revealing the truth will undermine people's faith in their supposedly infallible system. The detective story gradually evolves into a narrative about the evils of political propaganda and corruption.

Cast

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Spicer p.110
  2. ^ Noack p.328
  3. ^ Fisher p.159
  4. ^ "The 30th Academy Awards (1958) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-10-25.

Bibliography

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  • Fisher, Jaimey (ed.). Generic Histories of German Cinema: Genre and Its Deviations. Boydell & Brewer, 2013.
  • Noack, Frank. Veit Harlan: The Life and Work of a Nazi Filmmaker. University Press of Kentucky, 2016.
  • Spicer, Andrew. Historical Dictionary of Film Noir. Scarecrow Press, 2010.
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