"Plot to Revive Hitler" movies -- earliest?

[Benzadmiral]

As some of you know, I'm a big "Man from U.N.C.L.E." fan. Now that the DVDs are out, our Yahoo! group is having a grand time dissecting the episodes.

In an early B & W episode, a former Nazi scientist is revealed as having Adolf's body preserved in a cold sleep tank (though the name is never mentioned, it's pretty clear who it has to be) -- in his basement, yet. Now I know this is pretty old-hat to us now. My question: What was the earliest use of the Der Fuehrer Is Not Dead/Has Been Preserved plot in movies or on TV?

I suspect U.N.C.L.E.'s use of the idea (1964) might have been the first ever on series TV. Anybody know?
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[Benzadmiral]

No takers?

Okay, then -- just list your favorite PtRH movies, and we'll shake our heads and enjoy ourselves.
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[Mark DiSilvestro]

Don't know if it's the earliest and I wouldn't call it a favorite, but it pre-dates your 'Man From U.N.C.L.E.' epsode. The 1963 grade-Z Sci-Fi flick 'They Saved Hitlers Brain', AKA 'Madmen of Mandoras', featuring Hitler's head kept alive under glass! A Mercedes Adenauer 300 limo costars as the conveyance for the title character.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[t walgamuth]

The only one similar at all that I remember is "the boys from brazil". Didn't mengele have a bunch of Hitler progeny stashed in Brazil in that one?

Gregory Peck could do a good job as a bad guy too.

Tom W

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

The only one similar at all that I remember is "the boys from brazil". Didn't mengele have a bunch of Hitler progeny stashed in Brazil in that one?

Gregory Peck could do a good job as a bad guy too.

Tom W

That's a terrific one -- based on Ira Levin's novel (same guy who wrote "Rosemary's Baby" and "A Kiss Before Dying," by the way). In it, Mengele has cloned Adolf H. many times over, and has planted the kids in very similar home environments (not only in Brazil, I think) to that which produced Der Fuehrer. The idea being that the nature and the nurture being so similar, the odds are good that a new Hitler will arise. The novel is very good science fiction. It dates from the mid- to late '70s.
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[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted by Mark DiSilvestro

Don't know if it's the earliest and I wouldn't call it a favorite, but it pre-dates your 'Man From U.N.C.L.E.' epsode. The 1963 grade-Z Sci-Fi flick 'They Saved Hitlers Brain', AKA 'Madmen of Mandoras', featuring Hitler's head kept alive under glass! A Mercedes Adenauer 300 limo costars as the conveyance for the title character.

Happy Motoring, Mark

Thanks, Mark. I'm thinking, now that I've looked this little epic up, that it could have been the immediate ancestor of Dick Nelson's MfU script. I can't imagine any TV show of the period postulating that AH might have been preserved -- then as now, that's the stuff of science fiction, so a standard drama or cop show wouldn't have touched it. Any spy series before U.N.C.L.E. would have been more concerned with commie-hunting, and in any case would have skewed toward the "realistic."

Conceivably one of those SF anthology shows, like "One Step Beyond," "Twilight Zone," or "Outer Limits" might have tried it.
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[ytr1903]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He's_Alive_(The_Twilight_Zone)

This is the closest thing to your subject that I could come up with in the Twilight Zone episodes. I remember this one well and it was excellent like all of Serling's works were.

Tom

For some reason, the link is not picking up the ) on the end of the string. Add the ")" at the end of the word "zone" and it should work.

[Benzadmiral]

I don't recall that one; I'm old enough to have seen a lot of the TZ episodes in first-run, but I recall almost none of the hour-long shows, and those don't usually show in syndication.

Dennis Hopper, huh? It's easy to forget that he didn't just pop up when he did "Easy Rider" -- I saw him in a "Rifleman" episode a year ago, and he did a lot of other TV before his turn in that movie.
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