|
 |
 MY
HITLER is the real one. All the words and situations of Countdown
to War were arranged by Ronald Harwood from the records of the
politicians and diplomats involved. In preparation, I viewed as much
archive film of Hitler as the producers could supply. I can now
imitate the full variety of führerial mannerisms.
But our script was backstage Hitler, away from the crowds and the
stadium, surrounded by his courtiers and face to face with his
opponents. The extant film of Hitler trying to relax in trilby and
slacks, snuggling babies and wolfhounds, bowing to the young ladies
and clowning with the gents — none of it is believable. He was the
first politician to be created by the camera, yet he couldn't perform
on home movies. His off-duty body language betrays his innate
gaucheness, which power reversed into bullying, and his Puritanism,
which bloated into fanaticism.
We all think we know what Hitler looked like — the forelock,
moustache and the salute. In fact, what we are probably picturing is
an amalgam of propaganda images — cartoons, ranting mimics and, most
of all, Charlie Chaplin. Fifty years on, we still turn our fear into
mockery and remember the Great Dictator as a buffoon.
In 1939, the official portraits and the snapshots belied the
caricatures. He was then quite fleshy and corpulent. The silhouette
was loose and decrepit; the dyed hair greased back off the brow. His
clothes rarely fitted. No peacock: but he had the evil eye — all his
contemporaries looked into it and were mesmerised. The Third Reich was
devised and ruled by a hypnotist.
Costumed and padded, with a pale face and darkened hair, I strutted
in front of the full-length mirror. Chaplin grimaced back at me. Then
I got the clue. Swagger as he may have done at Nuremberg, Hitler's
body looks is if it let him down. He was terrified of cancer; he
didn't touch people; he was sexually apathetic; I bet he wanted to be
taller.
Sensuality for him was sticky chocolates. He really lived only in
his imagination, just behind the big mouth and those blue eyes which
blinded the faithful to his physical inadequacy. An ideal subject for
the television close-up. |
