He's Alive

Last updated
"He's Alive"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.Season 4
Episode 4
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Written by Rod Serling
Production code4856
Original air dateJanuary 24, 1963 (1963-01-24)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
 Previous
"Valley of the Shadow"
Next 
"Mute"
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 4)
List of episodes

"He's Alive" is episode four of the fourth season of The Twilight Zone . It tells of an American neo-Nazi who is visited by the ghost of Adolf Hitler. Writer Rod Serling scripted a longer version of the teleplay to be made into a feature-length film, but it was never produced. This episode is notable for Dennis Hopper's breakout performance as Peter Vollmer.

Contents

Opening narration

Portrait of a bush-league Führer named Peter Vollmer, a sparse little man who feeds off his self-delusions and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness in his diet. And like some goose-stepping predecessors he searches for something to explain his hunger, and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting. That something he looks for and finds is in a sewer. In his own twisted and distorted lexicon he calls it faith, strength, truth. But in just a moment Peter Vollmer will ply his trade on another kind of corner, a strange intersection in a shadowland called the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Peter Vollmer, the leader of a small and struggling Neo-Nazi group, is mocked and ridiculed by the crowds he preaches to on street corners. Ernst Ganz, the elderly Jewish man that Vollmer has had a sympathetic, uncle-like relationship with since he was an abused and neglected kid, offers him shelter and compassion but not respect. Ernst spent nine years in Dachau and recognizes that Vollmer's politics stem from a childish desire for the respect of others. This pains Vollmer, who openly confesses that he views Ernst as a father figure, since his real father physically abused him and his mother was never around.

Beginning one night, Vollmer is periodically visited by a shadowy figure who teaches him how to enthrall a crowd. The figure teaches Vollmer how to speak, and pays Vollmer's rent at the hall where he holds rallies. He also instructs Vollmer to arrange the death of one of his followers, Nick Bloss, thereby creating a martyr to rally everyone around (a reference to the 1930 murder of Horst Wessel, a low-ranking officer in the Sturmabteilung ). Following the figure's instructions and assistance, Vollmer becomes considerably more successful and his group's following grows. Ernst becomes fearful that Vollmer may actually succeed in igniting another Holocaust. He disrupts a rally, accusing Vollmer of being "nothing but a cheap copy" of the German Führer while Vollmer cowers before his surrogate father.

After the failed rally, the shadowy figure rebukes Vollmer for his failure and says that from now on he will be ordering Vollmer rather than instructing him. Vollmer demands to know who his mysterious benefactor is. The man steps forward from the shadows to reveal himself to be Adolf Hitler. He orders Vollmer to kill Ernst, and Vollmer steels himself enough to complete the task. Hitler congratulates him and asks how it felt; Vollmer replies that he felt immortal. Hitler responds, "Mr. Vollmer, we are immortal!"

Police officers arrive soon after, to arrest Vollmer for conspiracy to murder Nick. Shot while fleeing, Vollmer is astonished by the sight of his own blood. Hitler's shadow appears on the wall behind the dying Vollmer as he gasps out, "There's something very wrong here... Don't you understand that I'm made out of steel?!"

Closing narration

Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare – Chicago? Los Angeles? Miami, Florida? Vincennes, Indiana? Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.

Production

Rod Serling was particularly pleased with the script for "He's Alive", and was dismayed when he learned that a scene set between Hitler's revealing himself and Vollmer's returning to Hitler was cut due to length constraints. This prompted the idea of doing two versions of "He's Alive": a short version for television, and a longer version for theatrical release as a feature film. His extended script added a number of scenes and even a new protagonist, an FBI agent who investigates Vollmer's neo-Nazi movement, but with The Twilight Zone's budget already stretched to the breaking point, Serling's proposal was turned down. The scene following Hitler revealing himself was filmed, but the footage has since been lost. [1]

Cast

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rod Serling</span> American screenwriter (1924–1975)

Rodman Edward Serling was an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen, and helped form television industry standards. He was known as the "angry young man" of Hollywood, clashing with television executives and sponsors over a wide range of issues, including censorship, racism, and war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street</span> 22nd episode of the 1st season of The Twilight Zone

"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" is the 22nd episode in the first season of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. The episode was written by Rod Serling, the creator-narrator of the series. It originally aired on March 4, 1960, on CBS. In 2009, TIME named it one of the ten best Twilight Zone episodes.

Führer is a German word meaning "leader" or "guide". As a political title, it is strongly associated with Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Hitler officially styled himself der Führer und Reichskanzler after the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in 1934 and the subsequent merging of the offices of Reichspräsident and Reichskanzler.

<i>Schtonk!</i> 1992 German film

Schtonk! is a 1992 German satirical film which retells the story of the 1983 Hitler Diaries hoax. It was written and directed by Helmut Dietl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Ernst Remer</span> German Wehrmacht officer (1912-1997)

Otto Ernst Remer was a German Wehrmacht officer in World War II who played a major role in stopping the 20 July plot in 1944 against Adolf Hitler. In his later years, he became a politician and far-right activist. He co-founded the Socialist Reich Party in West Germany in the 1950s and is considered an influential figure in postwar neo-fascist politics in Germany.

<i>Downfall</i> (2004 film) 2004 film by Bernd Eichinger

Downfall is a 2004 historical war drama film written and produced by Bernd Eichinger and directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. It is set during the Battle of Berlin in World War II, when Nazi Germany is on the verge of total defeat, and depicts the final days of Adolf Hitler. The cast includes Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler, Heino Ferch, Christian Berkel, Alexander Held, Matthias Habich, and Thomas Kretschmann. The film is a German-Austrian-Italian co-production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolf Hitler in popular culture</span>

Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, has been represented in popular culture ever since he became a well-known politician in Germany. His distinctive image was often parodied by his opponents. Parodies became much more prominent outside Germany during his period in power. Since the end of World War II representations of Hitler, both serious and satirical, have continued to be prominent in popular culture, sometimes generating significant controversy. In many periodicals, books, and movies, Hitler and Nazism fulfill the role of archetypal evil. This treatment is not confined to fiction but is widespread amongst nonfiction writers who have discussed him in this vein. Hitler has retained a fascination from other perspectives; among many comparable examples is an exhibition at the German Historical Museum which was widely attended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Hanfstaengl</span> German American businessman (1887–1975)

Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl was a German American businessman and close friend of Adolf Hitler. He eventually fell out of favour with Hitler and defected from Nazi Germany to the United States. He later worked for Franklin D. Roosevelt and was once engaged to the author Djuna Barnes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag of Nazi Germany</span> Historical flag

The flag of Nazi Germany, officially the flag of the German Reich, featured a red background with a black swastika on a white disc. This flag came into use initially as the banner of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) after its foundation. Following the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in 1933, this flag was adopted as mandatory for use, while the national one was the black-white-red triband of the German Empire.

<i>The Victory of Faith</i> 1933 film

Der Sieg des Glaubens is the first Nazi propaganda film directed by Leni Riefenstahl. Her film recounts the Fifth Party Rally of the Nazi Party, which occurred in Nuremberg, Germany, from 30 August to 3 September 1933. The film is of great historic interest because it shows Adolf Hitler and Ernst Röhm on close and intimate terms, before Hitler had Röhm killed during the Night of the Long Knives on 1 July 1934. As he then sought to remove Röhm from German history, Hitler ordered all known copies of the film be destroyed, and it was considered lost until a surviving copy was found in the 1980s in East Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bibliography of Adolf Hitler</span>

This bibliography of Adolf Hitler is a list of some non-fiction texts in English written about and by him. Thousands of books and other texts have been written about him, so this is far from an all-inclusive list. It has been arranged into groups to make it more manageable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erich Kempka</span> Chauffeur for Adolf Hitler (1910–1975)

Erich Kempka was a member of the SS in Nazi Germany who served as Adolf Hitler's primary chauffeur from 1936 to April 1945. He was present in the area of the Reich Chancellery on 30 April 1945, when Hitler shot himself in the Führerbunker. Kempka delivered the petrol to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where the remains of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned.

Kurt Lüdecke was an ardent German nationalist and international traveler who joined the Nazi party in the early 1920s and who used his social connections to raise money for the NSDAP. Before attending a rally at which Adolf Hitler was a featured speaker, Lüdecke had assumed that Hitler was simply "one more fanatic" but after hearing Hitler speak at a mass demonstration at the Königsplatz in Munich, he adopted Hitler as his hero: "His appeal to German manhood was like a call to arms, the gospel he preached a sacred truth." The next day, he spoke to Hitler for four hours and offered himself to Hitler and the Nazi cause "without reservation ... I had given him my soul."

<i>Hitler: The Rise of Evil</i> 2003 Canadian television miniseries

Hitler: The Rise of Evil is a Canadian television miniseries in two parts, directed by Christian Duguay and produced by Alliance Atlantis. It stars Robert Carlyle in the lead role and explores Adolf Hitler's rise and his early consolidation of power during the years after the First World War and focuses on how the embittered, politically fragmented and economically buffeted state of German society following the war made that ascent possible. The film also focuses on Ernst Hanfstaengl's influence on Hitler's rise to power. The miniseries, which premiered simultaneously in May 2003 on CBC in Canada and CBS in the United States, received two Emmy Awards, for Art Direction and Sound Editing, while Peter O'Toole was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

<i>Men, Heroes and Gay Nazis</i> 2005 German film

Men, Heroes and Gay Nazis is a 2005 German documentary film directed, written and produced by Rosa von Praunheim. The film focuses on gay men who align themselves with hardcore authoritarian views, white power skinheads, and Nazis.

<i>Look Whos Back</i> 2012 satire novel by Timur Vermes

Look Who's Back is a bestselling German satirical novel about Adolf Hitler by Timur Vermes, published in 2012 by Eichborn Verlag. The novel was adapted into a German movie of the same name, which was released in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conspiracy theories about Adolf Hitler's death</span> Conspiracy theories as to Hitlers death

Conspiracy theories about the death of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, contradict the accepted fact that he committed suicide in the Führerbunker on 30 April 1945. Stemming from a campaign of Soviet disinformation, most of these theories hold that Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, survived and escaped from Berlin, with some asserting that he went to South America. In the post-war years, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) investigated some of the reports, without lending them credence. The 2009 revelation that a skull in the Soviet archives long (dubiously) claimed to be Hitler's actually belonged to a woman has helped fuel conspiracy theories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolf Hitler's bodyguard</span> Overview of Adolf Hitlers bodyguard units

Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany, initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust. He was hated by his persecuted enemies and even by some of his own countrymen. Although attempts were made to assassinate him, none were successful. Hitler had numerous bodyguard units over the years which provided security.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nazi architecture</span> Architecture style promoted by the Nazis

Nazi architecture is the architecture promoted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime from 1933 until its fall in 1945, connected with urban planning in Nazi Germany. It is characterized by three forms: a stripped neoclassicism, typified by the designs of Albert Speer; a vernacular style that drew inspiration from traditional rural architecture, especially alpine; and a utilitarian style followed for major infrastructure projects and industrial or military complexes. Nazi ideology took a pluralist attitude to architecture; however, Hitler himself believed that form follows function and wrote against "stupid imitations of the past".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolf Hitler's cult of personality</span>

Adolf Hitler's cult of personality was a prominent feature of Nazi Germany (1933–1945), which began in the 1920s during the early days of the Nazi Party. Based on the Führerprinzip ideology, that the leader is always right, promulgated by incessant Nazi propaganda, and reinforced by Adolf Hitler's success in fixing Germany's economic and unemployment problems by remilitarising during the global Great Depression, his bloodless triumphs in foreign policy prior to World War II, and the rapid military defeat of the Second Polish Republic and the Third French Republic in the early part of the war, it eventually became a central aspect of the Nazi control over the German people.

References

  1. "All the Little Hitlers". The Twilight Zone Magazine . October 1986.