''The Devil Strikes at Night'' (german: Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam) is a 1957 West German film directed by

Robert Siodmak Robert Siodmak (; 8 August 1900 – 10 March 1973) was a German film director who also worked in the United States. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of films noirs he made in the 1940s, such as ''The Killers'' (19 ...

. It was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

and is based on the true story of Bruno Lüdke. It is a highly fictionalized account of the hunt for serial killer Bruno Lüdke, as he murders women during the last year or two of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In one of the

crimes In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

a man is arrested who is obviously innocent. An investigator who starts to get a thread which leads to the real killer is frustrated by

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

authorities who feel that revealing the truth will undermine the people's faith in their supposedly infallible system. The

detective story Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as specu ...

gradually becomes a story about the evils of political

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

and

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

s Gottfried Will and

Rolf Zehetbauer Rolf Zehetbauer (13 February 1929 – 23 January 2022) was a German production designer, art director and set decorator. Zehetbauer won an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film ''Cabaret''. He died on 23 January 2022, a ...

Location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for exam ...

took place in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Cast

Claus Holm Claus Holm (4 August 1918 – 21 September 1996) was a German film actor. He appeared in 50 films between 1943 and 1979. He was born in Bochum, Germany and died in Berlin, Germany. Selected filmography * ''Floh im Ohr'' (1943) - Knecht Ha ...

as Kriminalkommissar Axel Kersten *

Annemarie Düringer Annemarie Düringer (26 November 1925 – 26 November 2014) was a Swiss actress. She was born in Arlesheim, Basel-Landschaft. The daughter of a Swiss industrialist, she graduated from Cours Simon, Paris in 1946, and from the Max Reinhardt Semi ...

as Helga Hornung *

Mario Adorf Mario Adorf (; born 8 September 1930) is a German actor, considered to be one of the great veteran character actors of European cinema. Since 1954, he has played both leading and supporting roles in over 200 film and television productions, am ...

as Bruno Lüdke * Hannes Messemer as SS-Gruppenfuehrer Rossdorf * Carl Lange as Major Thomas Wollenberg *

Werner Peters Werner Peters (7 July 1918 – 30 March 1971) was a German film actor. He appeared in 102 films between 1947 and 1971. Biography Peters was born in Werlitzsch, Kreis Delitzsch, Prussian Saxony, and died of a heart attack on a promotion tou ...

as Willi Keun *

Walter Janssen Walter Janssen (7 February 1887 – 1 January 1976) was a German film actor and director. He appeared in more than 160 films between 1917 and 1970. Selected filmography * '' The Dancer'' (1919) * ''Destiny'' (1921) * ''Wandering Souls'' (1 ...

as Kriminalrat Boehm *

Peter Carsten Peter Carsten (30 April 1928 – 20 April 2012) was a German actor and film producer. He appeared in 90 films between 1953 and 1999, including in supporting roles, ''Dark of the Sun'' (1968), ''Hannibal Brooks'' (1969), ''Madame Bovary'' (1 ...

as SS- Standartenfuhrer Mollwitz * Wilmut Borell as SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Heinrich, Rossdorf's aide * Monika John as Lucy Hansen, Kellnerin * Rose Schäfer as Anna Hohmann *

Lukas Ammann Lukas Ammann (29 September 1912 – 3 May 2017) was a Swiss actor who appeared mainly in German and Swiss films and television shows. He continued to work steadily for over 60 years. He is best known for his title role in the German televi ...

as Pflichtverteidiger von Keun *

Karl-Heinz Peters Karl-Heinz Peters (1903–1990) was a German film actor. Selected filmography * ''Alarm at Station III'' (1939) * ''Men Are That Way'' (1939) * '' The Governor'' (1939) * ''Enemies'' (1940) * '' Mein Leben für Irland'' (1940) * ''Between Hamburg ...

as Hauswart

References

External links

* * 1957 films West German films 1950s German-language films Films set in Berlin 1957 crime drama films 1950s thriller films German thriller films German detective films Political drama films Films directed by Robert Siodmak Film noir German black-and-white films German serial killer films Films about Nazi Germany Films based on non-fiction books Gloria Film films 1950s serial killer films 1950s German films {{crime-drama-film-stub

Cast

See also

References

External links