Thursday, February 6, 2014

Selling Hitler: Episode 4 (1991)

 
Now that the drama is on the downslope, the plates have begun to wobble.  Handwriting analysis is all well and good, but forensic tests are called for, and the age of the paper doesn’t hold up to initial scrutiny.  Reassurances are quickly passed around, and excuses are heartily made, but there’s a whiff of desperation in the air.  Even Thomas refuses to believe the evidence, because he’s gone too far down the rabbit hole for it not to be true.
 
After all the time and money sunk into obtaining the diaries, the mere possibility of them being forged is disastrous.  Gerd and Thomas both pull a Vizzini-in-The-Princess-Bride and call it inconceivable, agreeing to keep the matter between the two of them until the nonsense is cleared up.    PC does a nice job playing Thomas’s sheer terror at the idea.  He’s at an office party when he gets the call from the forensics lab, and you’d swear someone let the air out of him.
 
Meanwhile, the higher-ups at the magazine, having been briefed on the possession of the diaries, are keen to turn a profit.  Dueling publishers are brought in to bid on the rights to the story, including newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch.  (Whatever real-world knowledge I have of Murdoch is overshadowed by the hilarious Fry & Laurie sketch giving him the It’s a Wonderful Life treatment; Hugh Laurie was fantastic there.  As such, it’s hard for me to think about anything else whenever Murdoch is onscreen in this episode.)
 
Conclusion tomorrow – we’re just waiting for the hammer to fall.

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