Hitler: The Last Ten Days

Hitler: The Last Ten Days is a 1973 biographical drama film depicting the days leading up to Adolf Hitler's suicide. The film stars Alec Guinness and Simon Ward, and features an introduction presented by Alistair Cooke; the original music score was composed by Mischa Spoliansky. The film is based on the book Hitler's Last Days: An Eye-Witness Account (first translated in English in 1973) by Gerhard Boldt, an officer in the German Army who survived the Führerbunker.

Plot
The film opens with Hitler's 56th birthday, on 20 April 1945, and ends 10 days later with his suicide, on 30 April.

Cast

 * Alec Guinness – Adolf Hitler
 * Simon Ward – Hauptmann Hoffmann
 * Adolfo Celi – General Hans Krebs
 * Diane Cilento – Hanna Reitsch
 * Gabriele Ferzetti – Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel
 * Eric Porter – General von Greim
 * Doris Kunstmann – Eva Braun
 * Joss Ackland – General Wilhelm Burgdorf
 * John Bennett – Joseph Goebbels
 * John Barron – Dr. Stumpfegger
 * Barbara Jefford – Magda Goebbels
 * Valerie Gray – Helga Goebbels
 * Ann Lynn – Traudl Junge
 * Sheila Gish – Frau Christian
 * Julian Glover – Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein
 * Michael Goodliffe – General Helmut Weidling
 * Mark Kingston – Martin Bormann
 * Timothy West – Professor Karl Gebhardt
 * Andrew Sachs – Walter Wagner
 * Philip Stone – Colonel General Alfred Jodl
 * Angela Pleasence – Traudel

Production
Location shooting for the film included the De Laurentiis Studios in Rome and parts of England.

Release
The film opened in 26 theatres in West Germany on the anniversary of Hitler's birth on 20 April 1973, which led to several groups objecting to the film. Initial box office returns in West Germany were good in the major cities but not great. In its first nine days at the Empire, Leicester Square in London, the film grossed £17,860 ($41,971).

Home media
The film was released on DVD on 3 June 2008, and was released on Blu-ray in September 2015.