Canaris (film)

{{short description|1954 film}} {{use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox film | name = Canaris | image = Canaris (film).jpg | caption = | director = [[Alfred Weidenmann]] | producer = [[Emile J. Lustig]] | writer = {{ubl|[[Erich Ebermayer]]|[[Herbert Reinecker]]}} | narrator = | starring = {{ubl|[[O. E. Hasse]]|[[Barbara Rütting]]|[[Adrian Hoven]]|[[Martin Held]]}} | music = [[Siegfried Franz]] | cinematography = [[Franz Weihmayr]] | editing = [[Ilse Voigt (film editor)|Ilse Voigt]] | studio = Fama-Film | distributor = Europa-Filmverleih | released = {{film date|1954|12|30|West Germany|1958|4|28|[[New York City]]|df=y}} | runtime = 112 minutes | country = West Germany | language = [[German language|German]] | budget =$320,000<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety197-1955-03/page/n160/mode/1up?q=%22brought+in+at%22|magazine=Variety|title=Hope New German Pix Have What It Takes to Crack US Theatres|page=7|date=16 March 1955}}</ref> | gross = }} '''''Canaris''''' is a 1954 [[Cinema of Germany|West German]] [[drama film]] directed by [[Alfred Weidenmann]] and starring [[O. E. Hasse]], [[Barbara Rütting]] and [[Adrian Hoven]]. It portrays real events during the [[Second World War]] when [[Wilhelm Canaris]], the head of [[Abwehr|German military intelligence]], was arrested and executed for his involvement with the [[20 July Plot]] to overthrow [[Adolf Hitler]]. The film was a major success at the German box office, possibly because it allowed audiences to identify with a heroic German figure disassociated from [[Nazism]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hake|first1=Sabine|title=German National Cinema|date=2008|publisher=[[Routledge]]|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-42097-6|page=104|edition=illustrated|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-1_oabrL60C&q=canaris|accessdate=17 April 2016}}</ref> Released in the UK as '''''Canaris Master Spy''''', and in the US as '''''Deadly Decision'''''—it is also known by the [[alternative title]] '''''Canaris: Master Spy'''''.

It was shot at the [[Tempelhof Studios]] in [[Berlin]].

==Main cast== {{cast listing| * [[O. E. Hasse]] as [[Wilhelm Canaris|Admiral Canaris]] * [[Barbara Rütting]] as Irene von Harbeck * [[Adrian Hoven]] as Captain Althoff * [[Martin Held]] as [[Obergruppenfuehrer Heydrich|''Obergruppenfuehrer'' Heydrich]] * [[Wolfgang Preiss]] as Colonel Holl * [[Peter Mosbacher]] as Fernandez * [[Charles Regnier]] as Baron Trenti * [[Franz Essel]] as Beckmann * [[Alice Treff]] as ''Fräulein'' Winter * [[Herbert Wilk]] as ''Hauptmann'' Degenhard * [[Klaus Miedel]] as André, Franz. ''Offizier'' * [[Arthur Schröder]] as ''Herr'' von Harbeck * [[Ilse Fürstenberg]] as Anna Lüdtke * [[Arno Paulsen]] as ''Taxifahrer'' * [[Nora Hagist]] as ''Luftwaffenhelferin'' }}

== Music== The soundtrack features music from ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'', composed by [[Richard Wagner]].

==Release== ''Canaris'' opened in [[Hanover]] on 30 December 1954. The distributor played down any political significance to the film, and [[marketed]] it as the story of a good German Christian "whose human tragedy reflects the experience of millions of Germans."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hake|first1=Sabine|title=Screen Nazis: Cinema, History, and Democracy|date=2012|publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]]|location=[[Madison, WI]]|isbn=978-0-299-28713-9|pages=75–76|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lu4R9wQouSYC&pg=PA75}}</ref>

==Reception== The film was generally well received by critics, the press, and the public. Rated "worthwhile" by [[Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung (FBW)|FBW]], it was awarded a [[Bambi Award|Bambi]] for being the most financially successful film of 1955.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wolfgram|first1=Mark A.|title="Getting History Right": East and West German Collective Memories of the Holocaust and War|date=2011|publisher=[[Bucknell University Press]]|location=[[Lewisburg, Pennsylvania|Lewisburg]]|isbn=978-1-61148-006-1|pages=136–137|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dM8DulVdCZoC&pg=PA136}}</ref>

The film's portrayal of a "[[tragic hero]]" of the Nazi period has been described as part of the beginning of a wave of films "interrogating the [[National Socialist]] past" in West German cinemas.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Cooke|editor1-first=Paul|editor2-last=Silberman|editor2-first=Marc|title=Screening War: Perspectives on German Suffering|date=2010|publisher=[[Camden House]]|location=[[Rochester, NY]]|isbn=978-1-57113-437-0|pages=57–60|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1MdufwL9QgC&pg=PA57|accessdate=17 April 2016}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb title|0046819|Deadly Decision}}

[[Category:1954 films]] [[Category:1950s biographical drama films]] [[Category:1950s spy drama films]] [[Category:Films about Nazi Germany]] [[Category:Films about the 20 July plot]] [[Category:Films directed by Alfred Weidenmann]] [[Category:Films set in Germany]] [[Category:Films set in Berlin]] [[Category:Films set in London]] [[Category:Films set in Vienna]] [[Category:World War II spy films]] [[Category:German biographical drama films]] [[Category:1954 German-language films]] [[Category:German spy drama films]] [[Category:West German films]] [[Category:Films shot at Tempelhof Studios]] [[Category:German war drama films]] [[Category:1954 drama films]] [[Category:West German black-and-white films]] [[Category:1954 German films]] [[Category:German-language war films]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of Wilhelm Canaris]] [[Category:1954 biographical films]]