The Devil Strikes at Night

The Devil Strikes at Night (German: Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam) is a 1957 West German film directed by Robert Siodmak. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and is based on the true story of Bruno Lüdke.

It is the story of a serial killer who murders women during the last year or two of World War II. In one of the crimes a man is arrested who is obviously innocent. An investigator who starts to get a thread which leads to the real killer is frustrated by Nazi authorities who feel that revealing the truth will undermine the people's faith in their supposedly infallible system. The detective story gradually becomes a story about the evils of political propaganda and corruption.

Cast

Claus Holm as Kriminalkommissar Axel Kersten

Annemarie Düringer as Helga Hornung

Mario Adorf as Bruno Luedke

Hannes Messemer as SS-Gruppenfuehrer Rossdorf

Carl Lange as Major Thomas Wollenberg

Werner Peters as Willi Keun

Walter Janssen as Kriminalrat Boehm

Peter Carsten as SS- Standartenfuhrer Mollwitz

Wilmut Borell as SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Heinrich, Rossdorf's aide

Monika John as Lucy Hansen, Kellnerin

Rose Schäfer as Anna Hohmann

Lukas Ammann as Pflichtverteidiger von Keun

Karl-Heinz Peters as Hauswart