Hitler: The Last Ten Days (DVD)

Berlin, 1945. In the Fuhrerbunker, the last hiding place of the man who unleashed a reign of terror across Europe, it is Adolf Hitler’s 56th birthday. As the Allied troops close in on the doomed city, Nazi leaders headed by Martin Bormann, Goebbels and Keitel celebrate the Fuhrer’s birthday – knowing it will be his last. But even as Allied guns pound Berlin to ruins, Hitler still plots, brooding over maps, moving non-existent armies. Finally he accepts the inevitable, goes through a marriage ceremony with Eva Braun, dedicates his last will and takes a pistol from a drawer. It is left to Goebbels to tell the last of his followers “The Fuhrer is dead. The heart of Germany has ceased to beat”.

Sir Alec Guinness gives a masterly performance as the demented Hitler in this faithful re-creation of the last days of the German leader’s life.