Duped Till Doomsday

East Germany's contribution to the 1957 Cannes Film Festival was the wartime melodrama Betrogen bis zum Juengsten Tag. Had the film been released in the U.S., the title would probably have translated to Duped Till the Last. The film condemns the Nazi mindset by concentrating on a particularly odious cover-up. When his son is involved in the accidental killing of a girl, a Gestapo general pulls strings to save the boy from prosecution. The general manages to pin the blame for the killing on a group of Russians, whereupon he gives the men under his command carte blanche to round up and execute as many innocent Russians as they wish. This act of brutality is contrasted with the pangs of guilt suffered by the son and his co-conspirators.

Cast

Rudolf Ulrich Corporal Wagner Karl Wolfgang Kieling Private Lick Erich Brauer Hauptfeldwebel Hans-Joachim Martens Upper gunner Paulun Thomas Walther Suessenguth captain von der Saale Renate Küster Angelika, his daughter Peter Kiwitt General of the Waffen-SS Lick Hermann Dieckhoff Division commander Kurt Ulrich lieutenant Hannes Fischer Kitchen sergeant Helga Raumer Innkeeper daughter Paul Pfingst SS man

Metadata from the source database.