American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally
Short description
American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally tells the story of Mildred Gillars, an American actress who went to Europe hoping for a career and ended up working for Radio Berlin during World War II. Broadcasting under the name Axis Sally, she read Nazi propaganda and messages aimed at American troops, which made her a notorious voice on the airwaves. After the war she was captured in Berlin and sent back to the United States to stand trial for treason in Washington, D.C., where her lawyer fought to restore her reputation and argued that she had been an actress trapped in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Michael Polish directed the film, which sits between Force of Nature and Terror on the Prairie in his filmography. Vance Owen and Darryl Hicks wrote the screenplay, and Randall Emmett produced. Meadow Williams plays Mildred Gillars, with Al Pacino as her lawyer James Laughlin, Thomas Kretschmann as Joseph Goebbels, Mitch Pileggi as John Kelly, Lala Kent as Elva and Carsten Norgaard as Max Otto Koischwitz.
Released in 2021 and running 107 minutes, the drama was made by several American production companies and took in about 2 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 5.7 out of 10 from roughly 3,700 votes, and on TMDB 5.5 out of 10 from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 3.9 out of 10 from 21 reviews places it below even the modest audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- By the beginning of 1941, the State Department strongly recommended that US citizens leave Germany and countries within the German sphere of influence. Mildred Gillars (1900-1988) chose to disregard these recommendations because her fiancé, Paul Carlson, a naturalized German, stated that he would never marry her if she returned to the United States. Shortly after, he was drafted and sent to the Eastern Front, where he was killed.
- Mildred Elizabeth Gillars, nicknamed “Sally Seas” (“Axis” referred to the military and economic alliance of Germany, Italy, Japan and other states, which was opposed by the anti-Hitler coalition during World War II), along with Rita Zucca, were American radio broadcasters working for Nazi Germany and spreading Axis propaganda. After the war, Gillars was arrested in Berlin and became the first woman to be tried for treason in the United States, which occurred in March 1949.
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