This three-hour American-produced drama (with a mostly British cast) was first broadcast on US network television as a two-part miniseries and later released in edited form for the home video market.
It tells the (fictional) story of Helmut and Karl Hoffmann, two young brothers who come of age at the start of Hitler’s power in Germany.
The idealistic Karl (John Shea) enthusiastically joins the SA as a stormtrooper and experiences the darker side of Nazism. His intellectual and opportunistic brother Helmut (Bill Nighy) joins the SS and eventually becomes a successful officer under Reinhard Heydrich (David Warner).
After the SA is disbanded after the “night of the long knives”, Karl ends up in the Dachau concentration camp. Through the intercession of his brother, Karl is released and conscripted into the German army, serving on the ill-fated Russian front.
Ultimately, brother is pitted against brother until their relationship and the Third Reich stand in ruins. Karl and Helmut carry with them their parents, Albrecht and Gerda (Robert Urquhart and Carroll Baker), the woman both of them love, nightclub singer Mitzi Templer (Lucy Gutteridge) and a respected Jewish teacher (José Ferrer).
Tony Randall has a superb cameo as Putzi, a gay anti-Nazi cabaret comedian who is ultimately beaten to death by the SS.
Karl Hoffmann
John Shea
Helmut Hoffmann
Bill Nighy
Mitzi Templer
Lucy Gutteridge
Reinhard Heydrich
David Warner
Becker
Warren Clarke
Ernst Röhm
Michael Elphick
Uncle Walter
Stratford Johns
Albrecht Hoffman
Robert Urquhart
Gerda Hoffman
Carroll Baker
Prof. Ludwig Rosenberg
José Ferrer
Putzi
Tony Randall
Heinrich Himmler
John Normington
Theodor Eicke
Derek Newark
Gen. Josef Biegler
Paul Brooke
Adolf Hitler
Colin Jeavons
Lutze
John Dicks
Rudolf Longner
Ivor Roberts
Karl Tessler
Prentis Hancock
Theo Schmidt
Struan Rodger
Hans Meisner
Robert MacLeod
Pastor Sommers
John Woodnutt
Klaus
Walter Sparrow
Sepp Dietrich
Bernard Lloyd
Keilbach
Peter Craze
Griesch
John Benfield
Mueller
James Coyle
SA-Hauptscharfuhrer
Forbes Collins
Mrs Langner
Ruth Goring
Louisa
Tricia Thorns
Gildisch
Nick Brimble
Dr Best
Alec Linstead
Hans Hoffmann (age 2)
Peter Marquis
Hans Hoffmann (age 7)
Jodie Andrews
Hans Hoffmann (age 11-13)
Caspian Batorv
Frau Liebe
Tessa Shaw
Director
Jim Goddard