"Es geschah am 20. Juli" or "It Happened on July 20th" (and there are many more German and English titles for this one) is a West German film from 1955, so this one had its 60th anniversary last year. For the year 1955, it is not too uncommon that it is still in black-and-white and has sound. Germany consisted of two countries at this point already and this film we have here is from the FRG, i.e. West Germany. The cast includes a couple actors that may have been popular for their time, but today almost everybody here is unknown. The only one I am vaguely familiar with is Bernhard Wicki, who is also the lead actor. The star here is probably the director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst was among the most lauded German filmmakers from the silent era and here we have one of his few German sound films. Some people with great history knowledge may realize immediately reading about the 20th July that this film is about the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler's life led by a bunch of German soldiers, especially Stauffenberg. It has elements you find in the films starring Koch and Cruise, but there are also a couple scenes you may have seen in "Der Untergang", such as Hitler's famous meltdown that has been parodied on Youtube so many times. And we also hear Stauffenberg's famous last words. I personally thought it was a good watch. the film stays very essential at 75 minutes and works from start to finish for the most part, rarely drags. Acting, writing and direction are fine. I recommend this movie to everybody with an interest in black-and-white films and in the years of Nazi Germany. Thumbs up.
Review of It Happened on July 20th
