Director: Robert Siodmak
Hamburg, Germany, 1944, during World War II. A serial killer terrorizes the city. When it seems clear that the local police are unable to catch him, forces as dark and terrible as the criminal himself become involved in the case.
100 min
Rating: 6.9/10
Released
Top Cast
Claus Holm
Police Commissioner Axel Kersten
Mario Adorf
Bruno Lüdke
Hannes Messemer
SS-Gruppenführer Rossdorf
Peter Carsten
SS-Standartenführer Mollwitz
Carl Lange
Major Thomas Wollenberg
Werner Peters
Willi Keun
Movie Info
Director: Robert Siodmak
Production Companies: Divina-Film
Countries: Germany
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What Others Said
John Chard:
Serial Killer - Nazis - Same Thing!
Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam is directed by Robert Siodmak and written by Will Berthold (article) and Werner Jörg Lüddecke. It stars Claus Holm, Annemarie Düringer, Mario Adorf, Hannes Messemer, Carl Lange and Werner Peters. Music is by Siegfried Franz and cinematography by Georg Krause.
A serial killer is terrorising Hamburg, Germany, during World War II. When the local police struggle to catch him, the Gestapo are brought in to crack the case.
The basis for the story is that of real life serial killer Bruno Lüdke, here played by Adorf. Yet this is only a side-bar to the actuality of Siodmak's film, for it's a clinical deconstruction of Nazi Germany at the time, a look at the final throes of that regime. It shows how the corrupt powers would do anything to not make their government look bad, with orders even coming from Adolf himself! It's all very fascinating and potent, and well performed. There's some nice visual touches via the night sequences, though you reasonably expect to have more from Siodmak, a fine purveyor of expressionism and noir chiaroscuro. There's some contrivances and a couple of badly staged action sequences, but this remains a tough political drama with mystery shadings. 8/10