| Hitler: The Last Ten Days | |
| Director: | Ennio De Concini |
| Producer: | Wolfgang Reinhardt |
| Starring: | Alec Guinness Simon Ward Adolfo Celi Diane Cilento Gabriele Ferzetti |
| Music: | Mischa Spoliansky |
| Cinematography: | Ennio Guarnieri |
| Editing: | Kevin Connor |
| Studio: | Tomorrow Entertainment West Film |
| Distributor: | MGM-EMI[1] (UK) Paramount Pictures (US) |
| Runtime: | 105 minutes[2] |
| Country: | United Kingdom Italy |
| Language: | English |
| Gross: | $2,250,000 (US/Canada rentals)[3] |
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,[4] an officer in the German Army who survived the Führerbunker.
The film opens with Hitler's 56th birthday, on 20 April 1945, and ends 10 days later with his suicide, on 30 April.
Location shooting for the film included the De Laurentiis Studios in Rome and parts of England.
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.[5] In its first nine days at the Empire, Leicester Square in London, the film grossed £17,860 ($41,971).[6]
The film was released on DVD on 3 June 2008,[7] and was released on Blu-ray in September 2015.[8]