The life path and the career of Robert Siodmak has been winding, full of ups and downs, worthy of the script of a biopic waiting to be written and brought to screens sometime in the future. The German director of Jewish origin had to leave Germany when the Nazis came to power and ended up in Paris where with the few films made between 1933 and 1939 he came to be considered a possible rival or perhaps successor to René Clair. Terror followed him and at the outbreak of the Second World War he left for the United States where in 13 years he directed 23 films, becoming one of the specialists of the ‘film noir’ genre – appreciated by critics and film history, but not by the American public of that immediate post-war period, who preferred more optimistic-escapist films. Back in Europe he enjoyed several years of success and recognition and this period includes ‘Nachts wenn der Teufel kam‘ (the English distribution title is ‘The Devil Strikes at Night’) from 1957. He was one of the first filmmakers who took refuge to America during the Nazi period returning to make films in Germany. ‘Nachts wenn der Teufel kam‘ combines elements of American ‘film noir’ (many invented by Siodmak himself) with the tradition of German expressionist serial killer films, but it is above all also a political film, with a critical message about the political class and the police and justice apparatus subordinated to Nazism during the Second World War.
The story takes place in the last summer of the Second World War, the summer of 1944. German cities are already being bombed daily, the front lines are getting closer, the number of fallen soldiers is constantly increasing, but the official propaganda still talks about the final victory. All aspects of civilian life are subject to the directives of the Nazi Party and the terror of the Gestapo, including what remains of the police and judiciary. Captain Axel Kersten returns from the front after being seriously wounded and is assigned to the post of commissioner in the criminal police. When he is entrusted the case of the murder of a woman in Hamburg, he makes the connection with a series of crimes that had been committed in the last decades in different cities of Germany. The arrest and conviction of an innocent man prompts him to act determinedly to find the real killer, but solving the crimes does not sit well with the Nazi authorities. Public disclosure of the truth would harm official propaganda, as the culprit does not belong to those declared by the regime to belong to ‘inferior races’, and the recognition of judicial errors as well as the fact that so many serial murders were committed and remained unpunished during the years of Nazi rule would mean that the regime is not infallible. A strange complicity is born between the criminal and the system that tries to cover him, and those who still believe in justice in an unjust system are in great danger.
I have seen many films set in Germany during the Nazi years, but most of them were not German or were made many decades after the events. ‘Nachts wenn der Teufel kam‘ is different. It is a documentary in its own way, as it was made only 12 years after the fall of the regime, filmed in the same Germany where the story takes place and played by actors who lived through the era. The script is based on a real case made public by a series of articles published a year before. The descriptions of the decadence and corruption of the regime are based on testimonies and direct experiences. A scene such as the party that takes place in the villa of the high Nazi official has a Fellini tinge, but is actually based on historical reality. The action unfolds fluently, the characters are well described and the relationships between them built from few but well placed words. Images of buildings about to collapse, if not already in ruins, evoke the state of Germany in that final year of the war. There is also a love story that provides the necessary sentimental counterpoint. The most impressive of the performers is Mario Adorf, an extremely prolific actor whose career of over 200 films continues to this day. His role is part of the series of serial killer characters that began in German Expressionist films (some silent) and continues through Hannibal Lecter and his successors. ‘Nachts wenn der Teufel kam‘ is not only a film that deserves the label of ‘important’ but also a story on the screen that gives many reasons for satisfaction to the viewers of today.