The Devil Strikes at Night
| The Devil Strikes at Night | |
|---|---|
 Original German poster
| |
| Directed by | Robert Siodmak |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by | Robert Siodmak |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Georg Krause |
| Edited by | Walter Boos |
| Music by | Siegfried Franz |
Production company |
Divina-Film |
| Distributed by | Gloria Film |
Release date |
|
Running time |
105 minutes |
| Country | West Germany |
| Language | German |
The Devil Strikes at Night (German: Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam) is a 1957 West German film directed by Robert Siodmak. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film as well as winning German Film Award for Best Fiction Film in its native country. It is based on the true story of Bruno Lüdke.
It is a highly fictionalized account of the hunt for a serial killer, as he murders women during the last year or two of World War II. In one of the crimes a man is arrested who is obviously innocent. An investigator who starts to get a thread which leads to the real killer is frustrated by Nazi authorities who feel that revealing the truth will undermine the people's faith in their supposedly infallible system. The detective story gradually becomes a story about the evils of political propaganda and corruption.
The film's sets were designed by the art directors Gottfried Will and Rolf Zehetbauer. Location shooting took place in Berlin and Munich.
Cast
- Claus Holm as Kriminalkommissar Axel Kersten
- Annemarie Düringer as Helga Hornung
- Mario Adorf as Bruno Lüdke
- Hannes Messemer as SS-Gruppenfuehrer Rossdorf
- Carl Lange as Major Thomas Wollenberg
- Werner Peters as Willi Keun
- Walter Janssen as Kriminalrat Boehm
- Peter Carsten as SS- Standartenfuhrer Mollwitz
- Wilmut Borell as SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Heinrich, Rossdorf's aide
- Monika John as Lucy Hansen, Kellnerin
- Rose Schäfer as Anna Hohmann
- Lukas Ammann as Pflichtverteidiger von Keun
- Karl-Heinz Peters as Hauswart