Selling Hitler: Episode 3 (1991)

 

I know it’s a comedy, but this episode has the feel of the climax in a classical tragedy.  The fight between Mercutio and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Polonius’s death in Hamlet… As the characters are flying high and feeling invincible, that first catastrophe occurs, and it sets off the chain reaction that will topple all their hopes.

 

My, but that’s a bit dramatic, isn’t it?  Gerd, Thomas, Manfred, and the gang couldn’t be more excited about the diaries.  Everything’s been absolute secrecy up to this now – the forger who’s selling the diaries has fed them the line that his brother is smuggling them across the East German border, so discretion is paramount – but whisperings and rumors start to circulate when a page is brought in to analyze its authenticity.  It’s not the analysis that’s worrisome; in fact, the expert brought in is 100% certain that the diaries were from the hand of Hitler.  Rather, it’s the gossip that begins swirling through academic and publishing circles.  Someone has let the diaries’ existence slip, and the scavengers are eager for a piece of the action.

 

The doubters have started to circle as well.  Gerd and Thomas’s chief rival, historical expert David Irving, has caught wind of the diaries’ existence.  He’s determined to get a look at them, and his eyes are far less clouded than Gerd’s.  With David, Roger Lloyd-Pack joins the cast (John Lumic from the Cybermen two-parter in the second series of Who.)

 

Very little for Thomas to do in this episode.  All I can really say is that he’s completely changed his tune from the start of the miniseries.  Gone is the cautious Doubting Thomas (see what I did there?) that thinks the myths were too juicy to be true.  He’s fallen for it hook, line, and sinker, and his and Gerd’s hubris is another thing reminiscent of a tragedy.

 

As a side note, I like the way that the entries in the forged diaries are so utterly mundane.  Gerd is practically wetting himself with excitement over a matter-of-fact catalog of Hitler’s meals, health problems, and day-to-day comings and goings.

 

Warnings

 

A disturbing scene of a group of Americans discussing Hitler’s supposed good qualities.  In a way, it reminds of a scene in The Thick of It where Glenn and Ollie compare Malcolm to Chairman Mao and applaud “the evil” for their amazing work ethic, but given the subject matter, it’s more troubling than anything.