"Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam" or "The Devil Came at Night" is a German black-and-white film from almost 60 years ago. It was a huge success and apart from dominating the German Film Awards, it also managed an Academy award nomination, but came short against the Fellini entry. Robert Siodmak was already an Oscar nominee for Best Director himself and he is probably the star here. However, the cast includes many established and successful German actors as well, even if all of them are not known anymore to movie audiences today. With one exception. This film was maybe the breakthrough performance for young Mario Adolf, considerably over 80 today. He plays a serial killer in this movie, who is hunted by the protagonist a police officer.
The film takes place during the years of World War II, so justice may not be exactly what you'd expect, but what Nazis thought it would be in compliance with their Weltanschauung and ideology. Eliminating the weak was not a problem back then, actually it was necessary. But even with all the political context (that was obviously loved by the allied forces at this point as it showed them Germany was coming to terms with their guilt and elaborating what went wrong exactly) I must say the best part for me was when the film was an apolitical crime thriller, when we have a cop try to catch a dangerous killer when only he sees that thy caught an innocent man. To me personally, this is an example of a quality black-and-white film from Germany way past the silent film era. The acting was good by everybody involved, even if I did not really see Düringer as lead or awards-worthy. I recommend watching this film here, especially if you love the genre or films about this specific political era. Tense from start to finish. Go check it out.
The film takes place during the years of World War II, so justice may not be exactly what you'd expect, but what Nazis thought it would be in compliance with their Weltanschauung and ideology. Eliminating the weak was not a problem back then, actually it was necessary. But even with all the political context (that was obviously loved by the allied forces at this point as it showed them Germany was coming to terms with their guilt and elaborating what went wrong exactly) I must say the best part for me was when the film was an apolitical crime thriller, when we have a cop try to catch a dangerous killer when only he sees that thy caught an innocent man. To me personally, this is an example of a quality black-and-white film from Germany way past the silent film era. The acting was good by everybody involved, even if I did not really see Düringer as lead or awards-worthy. I recommend watching this film here, especially if you love the genre or films about this specific political era. Tense from start to finish. Go check it out.