April 25, 2026

Using the legendary tale of the manipulative "Reynard the Fox", this archive packed documentary tells us something of the rise to, and fall from, power of Adolf Hitler in Germany. It is a surprisingly effective parallel to draw as the cunning fox comes from nowhere to outmanourvre those further up the physical and political food chain. By allying himself with equally focussed and often unscrupulous characters - in this case, Göring, Goebbels et a… read the rest.

Using the legendary tale of the manipulative "Reynard the Fox", this archive packed documentary tells us something of the rise to, and fall from, power of Adolf Hitler in Germany. It is a surprisingly effective parallel to draw as the cunning fox comes from nowhere to outmanourvre those further up the physical and political food chain. By allying himself with equally focussed and often unscrupulous characters - in this case, Göring, Goebbels et al; by some judicious lying and by shrewdly playing the game he quite swiftly ends up at the top of the heap. What is a bit more uniquely potent here is the narration. Marlene Dietrich delivers the script in an almost visceral fashion. She sometimes appears to be disdainfully spitting out her dialogue when she refers to the Nazis in her home country as their tactics of Arianism and the increasingly violent exclusion then persecution of the Jewish population gathers steam. The archive impresses with the comprehensive nature of it's content - especially with what appears to be latter-day home movie footage of Hitler himself and depicting the brutality of the emerging regime as books are burned and those toxic yellow stars start to appear. This isn't just your standard wartime chronology and bears a listen to as much as a watch.

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