Adolf Hitler, magnificently acted by Bruno Ganz in the German film Downfall (2004), is half-educated and hot-tempered, a sane psychopath clearly unhappy over abysmal failure. His is not the only suicide in this scorching chronicle. The Third Reich falling to pieces, as Russian soldiers pour in, becomes a charnel house of self-killing. The non-suicidal are often wounded. Many long to survive.

Two things about Oliver Hirschberger‘s movie must be said, and at least one of them already has been, viz. it lets the German people off the hook for tolerance of antisemitism, etc. The other thing is that it humanizes people who were human beings—blind ones, alas. These folks include Traudl Junge, Gerda Christian, Alfred Jodl, Albert Speer, and the unhinged devil at the top of the heap. All the same, they were not victims. Their suffering does not match that of Jewish men, women and children in the death camps.

(In German with English subtitles)

The doctors’ wives in the 1971 Doctors’ Wives, directed by George Schaefer, are neglected, disgraceful, betrayed, noble. Seemingly a Valley of the Dolls wannabe (!), the film is a vulgar nonentity. It is a soap opera, by which I mean it is shallow and phony while appearing to be serious. The acting ranges from smoothly successful (John Colicos) to unsubtle (Rachel Roberts) to dull (Marian McCargo).

Sharon and Will and Dean (three characters on Chicago Med), Joe and Stella and Violet (on Chicago Fire) had better hotfoot it to another city. Brandon Johnson, a strong liberal, has just won Chicago’s mayoral race. I don’t think you’ll remain safe on city streets, Violet.

Many children of immigrants, illegal and legal, are currently living in poverty in the U.S. Will this change in the future? One suspects that state and federal bureaucracies will end up as overwhelmed as the Border Patrol is, if they aren’t already.