A Kitten for Hitler

A Kitten for Hitler (2007)

A plucky young Jewish boy traverses the globe on a quest to warm the Führer's heart with the gift of a cuddly feline. (The result of a challenge from Melvyn Bragg to produce a film that Ken Russell himself would be eager to see banned.)

Date of release
2007-06-01
TMDB
4.6 / 10 (10)
Runtime
8m
Genres
Comedy
Director
Ken Russell

Casting

Interesting facts

A Kitten for Hitler, also known as Ein Kitten für Hitler, is a 2007 British short film directed by Ken Russell. Russell created it intending to be offensive, which caused casting problems, so he decided to cast an adult with dwarfism instead of a young child for the lead role. Russell thus cast Rusty Goffe, who played an Oompa-Loompa in the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, to play the lead role of Lenny, an American Jewish boy who aims to inspire a change of heart in Hitler.

Production

Following a discussion about film censorship with British broadcaster Melvyn Bragg while they worked on The South Bank Show, Bragg challenged Russell to create a film which Russell himself would want banned. The result was A Kitten for Hitler. After Russell sent Bragg an initial draft, Bragg responded, "Ken, if ever you make this film and it is shown, you will be lynched."

Phil Pritchard portrayed Adolf Hitler. Those auditioning for the part were asked to attend the casting dressed as Hitler, creating a bizarre waiting room scene. Due to the content of the film, Russell couldn't convince any child actor's parents to let their son appear in the film. Russell decided to fill the role of Lenny with an adult with dwarfism.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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