C'est arrivé le 20 juillet

The total number of attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler has never been truly established but the fact that Hitler escaped them all is absolutely mind-boggling. He sustained minor injuries in what is undoubtedly the most renowned of these plots, that of July 1944. Had not the suitcase containing the bomb been moved behind a thick table leg seconds before the blast.....pure supposition of course. Following the failed attempt the gruesome fates of the well-intentioned conspirators and the subsequent purge of thousands have been well-documented. G.W.Pabst has chosen to depict the events in a clinical, matter-of-fact manner and although it cannot be faulted as a factual account, judged purely as a film it is regrettably rather dull. We are at least spared the spectacle of a ranting Hitler and just see the back of an actor's head. The film is of value as an historical document but could not a director of Pabst's ability have made it slightly more 'entertaining'?