Mein Fuhrer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler

March 31, 2024

The best thing about "Mein Fuhrer" is that, after more than 50 years, the German film industry has finally mustered up the courage to make a comedy about Hitler. The worst thing about "Mein Fuhrer" is that it pulls its punches -- and, overall, is not laugh-out-loud funny.

The best thing about “Mein Fuhrer” is that, after more than 50 years, the German film industry has finally mustered up the courage to make a comedy about Hitler. The worst thing about “Mein Fuhrer” is that it pulls its punches — and, overall, is not laugh-out-loud funny. Charlie Chaplin and Mel Brooks had more fun with the Nazis than this, despite a stellar cast, excellent production values and a neat storyline with a cheeky twist. Despite mixed reviews, much-hyped pic strutted to a strong $2.5 million on its first weekend; offshore, “Fuhrer” is likely to march to a quieter beat.

Pic’s main problem is one of tone, a weakness that has dogged Levy’s career. Sometimes he gets it right, as in his 2004 hit laffer “Go for Zucker!,” about German-Jewish Holocaust angst, and family drama “I’m the Father.” Sometimes he doesn’t, as in Nazis-under-the-rug thriller “The Giraffe” and metaphysical drama “Silent Night.”

With “Fuhrer,” Levy can’t decide whether to make a pratfall comedy, a comedy-drama with a message or a no-holds-barred farce. All three elements jostle for screen space within the tight running time, making pic seem much longer than its 95 minutes. Problem of tone isn’t helped by Niki Reiser’s copious score, whose symphonic language is more suited to a regular Third Reich drama.More seriously, local comedian Helge Schneider is miscast in the title role. Though he has fun with Hitler’s Austrian accent, he doesn’t look remotely like the real Fuhrer (casting does try for some verisimilitude with other well-known characters). In a pure screwball comedy, this wouldn’t matter, but the film diminishes Schneider’s role by giving equal (and more serious) space to a Jewish character, Gruenbaum, who becomes the pic’s heart and soul.

Setting is Berlin, the last week of December 1944. The war is lost, the Reich is as shattered as the city itself (repped by excellent CGI), and Hitler is in the middle of a major depression. With the Fuhrer due to give a big rallying speech on New Year’s Day, Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) tries to get well-known former legit thesp Adolf Gruenbaum (Ulrich Muehe, “The Lives of Others”) to revive the fire in Hitler’s loins.

In some funny early scenes, Gruenbaum is hauled out of a labor camp, cleaned up in some (real) showers, and brought to Nazi headquarters in a heavily bombed area, where he’s given a ham-and-cheese sandwich. In what suggests a Teuton “Carry on Adolf,” pic has fun with Germans’ obsession with paperwork and order, Nazi sloganeering and double standards when the chips are down.

Gruenbaum is told not to take the Final Solution personally, as the German people need him. Gruenbaum agrees to rescue Hitler from his funk, so long as his wife (Adriana Altaras) and kids are freed from Sachsenhausen and the whole concentration camp is closed down. Goebbels makes good on the first, but double-crosses Gruenbaum on the second.

Heart of the pic should be the scenes between Gruenbaum and Hitler, with the former portrayed as a helpless but wily Jew and the latter as a screeching, bed-wetting, impotent Nazi who plays with a toy battleship in his marble bath. These scenes do start out promisingly, in almost cabaret style, as Gruenbaum coaches Hitler in oratory.

However, pic spends too much time on Gruenbaum’s family life — largely serious scenes that deflate the overall comedy and are reminiscent of regular anti-Nazi dramas. A side plot of Goebbels and Himmler (Ulrich Noethen, wearing an arm brace in a perpetual Nazi salute) planning to blow up the Fuhrer and take over the Reich is underdeveloped.

Pic’s boldest idea is reserved for the final reels, as a last-minute development puts Gruenbaum in the hot seat. But once again, Levy’s script pulls its punches, larding the surreal comedy with more heartfelt drama.

Strong lineup of thesps generally acquits itself well within the script’s limitations, led by the excellent Muehe and Groth, who captures what the film’s overall tone should have been. Amid various guest roles, Katja Riemann briefly appears in a weak sequence as Eva Braun.

Production values, especially the cool colors and good composition by lensers Carl-F Koschnick and Carsten Thiele, are excellent. Incorporation of docu footage from the time further complicates the film’s tone.

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