Taglines: Howard W. Campbell, Jr., is the most patriotic American in the Third Reich.
Mother Night movie storyline. Confined in an Israeli jail, Howard W. Campbell, Jr. writes a memoir about his career in Nazi Germany. During the buildup to World War II, Campbell, an American playwright of German language stage productions, is approached by War Department operative Frank Wirtanen.
Wirtanen asks Campbell to work as a spy for the U.S. in the approaching war, though he promises no reward or recognition. Campbell rejects the offer, but Wirtanen adds that he wants Campbell to take some time to consider, telling him that Campbell’s answer will come in the form of how he acts and what positions he assumes once the war begins.
In the initial stages of the war, Campbell works his way up through Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda organization, eventually becoming the “voice” of English language anti-Semitic pro-Nazi racist broadcasts aimed at U.S. citizens. Unknown to the Nazis, all of the idiosyncrasies of his speech – deliberate pauses, coughing, etc. – form a secret code that covertly transmits information to Allied forces. Late in the war, after his wife, Helga, is reported killed on the Eastern Front, Campbell visits her family in early 1945 outside Berlin, just before the Red Army arrives, and Helga’s younger sister, Resi, confesses that she is in love with him.
Eventually, Campbell is captured when a U.S. infantryman recognizes his voice. Before he can be executed, Wirtanen arranges for Campbell’s discreet release and helps his relocation to New York City. There, Campbell lives a lonely existence for 15 years, sustained only by memories of Helga and an indifferent curiosity about his eventual fate. Mrs. Epstein, a Holocaust survivor living in Campbell’s building, is the only person who suspects his true identity; he seems to avoid her suspicions by feigning ignorance of German. Campbell’s only friend is George Kraft, an elderly painter who, through an extraordinary coincidence, happens to be a Soviet intelligence agent.
Over many games of chess, Campbell reveals his secret past to Kraft, who tries to use this information to improve his standing with his handlers by forcing Campbell into a position where he must flee to Moscow. He leaks information about Campbell’s whereabouts, which gets the attention of a neo-Nazi organization. Representatives of this group meet Campbell and present him with who seems to be Helga. However, it is not long before Campbell discovers that Helga is actually Resi, who has taken Helga’s identity to escape from then-Communist East Germany.
Mother Night is a 1996 American romantic war film based on Kurt Vonnegut’s 1961 book of the same name. Nick Nolte stars as Howard W. Campbell, Jr., an American who moves with his family to Germany after World War I and goes on to become a successful German language playwright. As World War II looms, Campbell meets a man who claims to be from the United States Department of War, and is recruited to spy for the U.S., transmitting Nazi propaganda containing hidden messages that can only be decoded by Allied intelligence.
Mother Night (1996)
Directed by: Keith Gordon
Starring: Nick Nolte, Sheryl Lee, Alan Arkin, Kirsten Dunst, Bernard Behrens, Anna Berger, Arye Gross, Norman Rodway, Frankie Faison, Zach Grenier
Screenplay by: Robert B. Weide
Production Design by: François Séguin
Cinematography by: Tom Richmond
Film Editing by: Jay Rabinowitz
Costume Design by: Renée April
Set Decoration by: Frances Calder, Simon La Haye, Daniéle Rouleau
Art Direction by: Zoe Sakellaropoulo
Music by: Michael Convertino
MPAA Rating: R for a scene of sexuality.
Distributed by: Fine Line Features
Release Date: November 1, 1996
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