''Duped Till Doomsday'' (german: Betrogen bis zum jüngsten Tag) is a 1957 East German

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Kurt Jung-Alsen Kurt Jung-Alsen (18 June 1915 – 20 December 1976) was a German film director and screenwriter. He directed 24 films between 1954 and 1976. Selected filmography * ''The Call of the Sea'' (1951) * ''Duped Till Doomsday'' (1957) * ''Poloni ...

. It was entered into the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

Soldiers Wagner, Paulun and Lick are three friends and the best sharpshooters in their division, that is stationed in

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, near the German-Soviet border. During June 1941, while on vacation, they walk near a river and spot a movement in the bush. Believing it to be a bird, they shoot in its direction and discover that they have killed Angelika, their captain's daughter. The three throw her corpse to a swamp and proceed as if nothing happened. Lick tells of the incident to his father, a Waffen-SS general, who decides to use the corpse for propaganda purposes: on 22 June, the day of the invasion to the Soviet Union, he exhumes Angelika's remains and claims she was killed by Soviet marauders. Her father orders to shoot Latvian civilians in response. Paulun tries to tell the truth, but Lick claims he is insane; Wagner remains silent. When Paulun tries to escape arrest, he is killed by Lick. Wagner does nothing and continues to behave as usual.

Cast

Rudolf Ulrich Rudolf Ulrich (3 January 1922 – 4 April 1997) was a German film actor. He appeared in 67 films between 1954 and 1986. He died in Berlin at age 75. Selected filmography * ''Duped Till Doomsday'' (1957) * ''Polonia-Express'' (1957) * '' Br� ...

as Wagner *

Wolfgang Kieling Wolfgang Kieling (16 March 1924 – 7 October 1985) was a German actor. Biography In films since childhood in his native Germany, Kieling appeared in a few American films, notably in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Torn Curtain'' (1966), where he play ...

as Lick * Hans-Joachim Martens as Paulun *

Walther Süssenguth Walther Süssenguth (February 8, 1900 - April 28, 1964) was a German actor. Filmography External links * 1900 births 1964 deaths People from Schleiz People from the Principality of Reuss-Gera German male film actors 20th-century Germ ...

as captain * Renate Küster as Angelika * Peter Kiwitt as Waffen-SS General Lick * Hermann Dieckhoff as division commander *

Kurt Ulrich Kurt Ulrich (28 June 1905 – 11 September 1967) was a German film producer. He produced more than 140 films between 1933 and 1964. He was born in Berlin, Germany. Selected filmography * '' Everything for a Woman'' (1935) * '' Every Day I ...

as lieutenant *

Erich Brauer Erich Brauer (28 June 1895, in Berlin – 9 May 1942, in Petah Tikvah) was a German Jewish illustrator, ethnographer, and ethnologist. As an artist he chose to be known as Erich Chiram Brauer. He often signed his art work "Chiram". Early life ...

as staff sergeant * Hannes Fischer as kitchen sergeant * Wolfgang Lippert as Voss * Helga Raumer as innkeeper's daughter *

Fritz Diez Fritz Diez (27 February 1901 – 19 October 1979) was a German actor, producer, director and theater manager. Biography Early life Diez's mother was a servant, and raised her three children alone. To support his family, the child began working a ...

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

(voice) *

Horst Giese Horst Fritz Otto Giese (31 January 1926 – 29 December 2008) was an East German actor. Biography In 1945, Giese made his debut on stage at his native Neuruppin, then in the Soviet occupation zone. Later he appeared on television. His first role ...

as uncredited role

Production

The script was adapted from the 1955-published novel ''Kameraden'' by

Franz Fühmann Franz Fühmann (15 January 1922 – 8 July 1984) was a German writer who lived and worked in East Germany. He wrote in a variety of formats, including short stories, essays, screenplays and children's books. Influenced by Nazism in his youth ...

. Fühmann himself was excluded from participating in the production.Dennis Tate. ''Franz Fühmann, innovation and authenticity: a study of his prose-writing''. . page 50. The picture was the first of the "army epics", a new East German genre that reformed the classic German style of portraying military comradeship, replacing the typical soldiery friendship with plots centered on moral dilemmas facing the servicemen.Miera Liehm, Antonin J. Liehm . ''The Most Important Art: Soviet and Eastern European Film After 1945''. . Page 269. In addition, the picture was intended as a response to the war films produced in the West at those years.Detlef Kannapin. ''Dialektik der Bilder''. . Page 150.

Reception

''Betrogen bis zum jüngsten Tag'' was the first East German film to be entered into the Cannes Film Festival; a year earlier, at 1956, ''

Zar und Zimmermann ''Zar und Zimmermann'' (''Tsar and Carpenter'') is a comic opera in three acts, music by Albert Lortzing, libretto by the composer after Georg Christian Römer's ''Der Bürgermeister von Saardam, oder Die zwei Peter'', itself based on the French p ...

'' and ''

Der Teufelskreis ''Der Teufelskreis'' is an East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on ...

'' were screened outside the competition. Although the picture had no chance of winning due to political considerations, it was nominated for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

. The film was DEFA's most successful project since the 1946 ''

Murderers Among Us ''Die Mörder sind unter uns'', a German film known in English as ''Murderers Among Us'' in the United States or ''The Murderers Are Among Us'' in the United Kingdom was one of the first post-World War II German films and the first ''Trümmerfilm ...

''. It was well received abroad. The ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' magazine's reviewer wrote that it was "very worth seeing... mostly admirable, flowed in the end."''Punch'', Volume 234. Page 163.
/ref> The East German media called it "the first DEFA war film" and praised it. Fühmann's work received considerable attention due to the film, and his books were re-printed.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0050187, title=Duped Till Doomsday *
Betrogen bis zum jüngsten Tag
' on PROGRESS' website. 1957 films 1957 drama films German drama films East German films 1950s German-language films German black-and-white films Films directed by Kurt Jung-Alsen Films about Nazi Germany 1950s German films