As the film begins, widower Mike Frame (Fredric March) is preparing to welcome his young nephew, Emil (Skippy Homeier), into his home. Emil, a German boy nearly twelve years old, is the orphaned son of Mike's sister, Mary, and her husband, Karl Bruckner, a German resistance supporter, who died in a concentration camp.
Shortly after arriving at Mike's home, Emil changes his clothes...donning the uniform of The Hitler Youth. His hatred for all things non-German is soon obvious, as is his disdain for women and Jews. Shouting "Heil, Hitler," Emil informs Mike that he is willing to die for his fuhrer. He further informs Mike that his father, a traitor to The Third Reich, was a coward who committed suicide. Refusing to listen when Mike attempts to set the record straight, Emil destroys the picture of Bruckner which hangs on the wall in Mike's study.
While the family continually tries to love Emil and, thereby, remove the Nazi indoctrination from his mind and heart, they are continually thwarted. The Hitler Youth very successfully programmed the mind of the young boy, and undoing their work may prove to be impossible. Whether they are able to do so is the basis for the remainder of the film.
This film was powerful and, from what I have learned through a lengthy study of the rise of Nazi Germany, quite accurate in its portrayal of the young German boy. The Hitler Youth completely sought to control the minds of its young people, often turning them against their own parents. Although Fredric March gets top billing, the real star of this film is Skippy Homeier. He was totally fantastic in the role of Emil....down to the clicking of the boots! Quite honestly, his portrayal was so realistic, I found myself shivering a few times.
Being totally honest, however, I must admit that I have a couple concerns with the film, though they in no way influence me to rate it lower. First, I found it unrealistic that the Nazi government would have sent one of The Hitler Youth to live in America...even if he had been orphaned. Why would they have allowed their enemy to have one of their own? That just didn't ring true to me. Also, the ending was a bit too pat for me. I won't say more than that, as I don't want to give away how things turn out; suffice to say, that it seemed quite unrealistic. Those things aside, however, I still greatly enjoyed this film, which is out on DVD and should be quite easy to track down.
Happy viewing!!