The Making of "The Crew of the Dora" (Besatzung Dora) Limited Edition

One of the Third Reich's most challenging propaganda feature films -- Besatzung Dora/The Crew of the Dora, the story of a crew of long-range air reconnaissance flyers in the Luftwaffe, was shot in the Occupied Soviet Union, in Occupied France, and in both Berlin and Greater Rome between August and December 1942. The film was written, produced and directed by the Ufa film studio's highly successful Karl Ritter (1888-1977). From producing Steinhoff's Hitlerjunge Quex to his own Stukas and Pour le Mérite, Ritter's hard-hitting propaganda films had proven extraordinarily popular, and broken box office records. Stalin's USSR demanded he stand trial for war crimes in 1945 for Quex, Über alles in der Welt, Kadetten, and his anti-Communist films about the Spanish Civil War and the Soviet GPU. For the first time in Third Reich Cinema literature, a book brings an insider's perspective to working within the dictatorship for Joseph Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry, the OKW, and Ufa, which approved, then rejected, re-approved, supported, and in the end, banned The Crew of the Dora from cinemas altogether. This book provides 120 pages of transcribed excerpts from Ritter's heretofore-unpublished diaries, following the conception, writing, production, filming and censorship of the film between May 1942 and March 1943. The Making of The Crew of the Dora is an essential read for anyone interested in Nazi filmmaking. 320 pages, 90 photos & illustrations, Perfect-bound trade paperback. By William Gillespie, author of Karl Ritter - His Life and 'Zeitfilms' Under National Socialism (2nd edition, 2014). ---- " The book is filled with details of great interest to any student of 'Third Reich' cinema. "---Prof. Roel vande Winkel, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, September 2016