Hitler's Madman

Hitler's Madman is a 1943 World War II drama directed by Douglas Sirk. It is a fictionalized account of the 1942 assassination of Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich and the resulting Lidice massacre, which the Germans committed as revenge. The film stars Patricia Morison and Alan Curtis and features John Carradine as Reinhard Heydrich. Sirk intended the film to function more as a documentary, but after Louis B. Mayer acquired the film in February 1943, he required reshoots to increase the drama. According to TCM, “Added material included Heydrich's deathbed scene with "Himmler" and university scenes featuring M-G-M starlets, including Ava Gardner.”

Hitler's Madman was Sirk's first American production after fleeing Nazi Germany and abandoning his German name of Detlef Sierck. The screenplay was written by Peretz Hirschbein, Melvin Levy, and Doris Malloy, from a story by Bart Lytton, with some uncredited contributions by Edgar G. Ulmer.. John Carradine, meanwhile, has the dubious honor and advantage of having met Reinhard Heydrich and spending time with him before his assassination, which is why Carradine was able to portray him so chillingly accurately, he actually knew the man.