Selling Hitler is a
German movie about the
true epic story of the creation and sale of fake
Hitler's wartime diaries. Many have considered this to be
the biggest fraud of all time, but I’d settle for
the biggest fraud of the 20th century.
The movie dramatizes the story of
Konrad Fischer, an
East German who decided to make an extra
buck by forging diaries as if they were
Hitler's.
Even though someone should have suspected this because of the writing style and content, big
magazines like
Stern and
newspapers like
The Times, as well as historians, bought the whole thing and even
printed it.
It is hilarious to see the development of the
fraud while more and more people begin to cash on it and the editions of Stern need each time more printing. The fake writer, forced to keep writing new “extracts” to keep the public and the
media happy, begins to adopt, in real life, mannerisms and looks of Hitler. It's also a good-humored critic on the specialists and media in general.
On to some IMDB details then:
"Selling Hitler" (1991)
Directed by:
Alastair Reid
Writing credits:
Robert Harris and
Howard Schuman
Credited
cast:
Jonathan Pryce ....
Gerd Heidemann
Alexei Sayle .... Konrad 'Conny' Fischer
Alison Doody .... Gina Heidemann
Julie T. Wallace .... Edith Lieblang
Richard Wilson .... Henri Nannen
Tom Baker ....
Manfred Fischer
Olivier Pierre ....
Peter Koch
Philip Fox ....
Leo Pesch
See Hitler Diaries for quotes of the infamous fraud