NAZI FILMS

While it’s true, as Kenneth Turan points out in “Reflections of the Third Reich” (Jan. 8), that the sentiments in Nazi war films were often mirror reflections of their Hollywood counterparts, there were some differences.

Hollywood kept the war clearly in focus, while Berlin went the other way with escapist entertainment. It’s also interesting that while we produced hundreds of films with Germany the obvious enemy, there was barely any allusion to America in German wartime movies.

Goebbels had supervised a number of films glorifying National Socialism before the war, few of which did well at the box office. He had total control over newsreels, radio and the press but not the public purse.

TONY THOMAS

Burbank

Turan is guilty of the same kind of subtle propagandizing that he attributes to the movies themselves. There are several “indirect messages attached to” his article, but one stands out as the most glaring. He refers to the airman in “The Great Love” as being “off bombing civilians” when, in fact, this could not have taken place. The airman flew a Messerschmidt 109, a fighter plane designed to shoot at bombers only and never at the ground.

ARNO KEKS

El Monte