All right. Looks like we’re getting to the bottom of this Goebels-the-filmmaker business. Reader EF notes:
He did get involved and resented the fact that the Nazi movies lacked the snap of the Hollywood product. He desperately wanted a Nazi answer to âGone with the Windâ and pushed for the production of âKolbergâ, a turgid depiction of a heroic siege in the Frederick the Great era (I believe). And getting involved in the UFA productions gave him a chance to hang around with and sleep with actresses. Interestingly, just about all of the major mid-century leaders were big movie fans, and most preferred the Hollywood product â including Hitler and Stalin.
Curiously, there was an âAmerican Experienceâ documentary last night on PBS in New York on Goebbels, with Kenneth Branagh reading from the Goebbels Diaries. How this constituted part of the âAmerican Experienceâ is a mystery even stranger than anything on â24,â the competition over on Fox.
IMDB says the heroic seige depicted in Kolberg took place during the Napoleonic Wars. The city of Kolberg is now known as KoÅobrzeg after the Potsdam Conference moved Poland’s border west to the Oder.