John Shea (9/84 Hitler's SS)
Excerpt from Excerpt from New York Times 9/28/84: John Shea | Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil
AT THE MOVIES: Exploring the Differences Between Screen and Stage
By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER September 28, 1984
Having discussed movies and stage, Mr. Shea is off to England to star in a television production - ''SS,'' in which he portrays an idealistic young Nazi during the days of Germany's Weimar Republic.
© The New York Times
Excerpt from Bowling Green Daily News 2/14/85: John Shea
Kojak, Hitler return to television
By Fred Rothenberg
The new NBC movie picks up on that same theme as two brothers struggle with their consciences inside the Aryan hate machine's bureaucracy. John Shea stars as Karl Hoffman and Bill Nighy plays his brother, Helmut. The fact that Shea is an American actor and Nighy a British actor is attributable to British union demands that the production have British actors playing key roles in exchange for filming in England. Their different accents aside, the acting may be the only worthwhile thing about "Hitler's SS."
© Bowling Green Daily News
Excerpt from New York Times 2/15/85: John Shea
TV WEEKEND; 2 MOVIES FOCUS ON NAZI GERMANY
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR Published: February 15, 1985
Two more television movie examples are available: ''Kojak: The Belarus File'' on Channel 2 tomorrow night at 9, and ''Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil'' on Channel 4 Sunday at 8 P.M.
....
Spanning the years 1931 to the end of the war in 1945, the story follows the separate but periodically converging paths of two German brothers. Helmut Hoffman (Bill Nighy) will drop out of college to join the SS and become a top aide to the high Nazi police official Reinhard Heydrich (David Warner). Helmut has serious reservations about the Nazis, but he feels it is best to work for reform from within. His younger brother, Karl (John Shea), even though an early member of Hitler's Storm Troopers, is more idealistic. But after winding up in the Dachau concentration camp for a brief spell, Karl sulks about the inhumanity of man and only reluctantly agrees to serve in the German army, in which he quickly becomes an officer.
© New York Times
Excerpt from Sun Sentinel 2/15/85: John Shea
`Hitler`s Ss` Worth Viewing
February 15, 1985|By Bill Kelley, Television Writer
The most distant is the documentary, and the most interesting is Hitler`s SS, which airs Monday (locally, at 8 p.m. on WPTV-Ch. 5 and WSVN-Ch. 7). Hitler`s SS covers familiar ground -- two brothers (played by John Shea and Bill Nighy) mature in Germany as Hitler comes to power, and eventually take different sides in the Nazi movement -- but its origins in the very earliest stages of the Nazi juggernaut, and several memorable supporting performances, make it worthwhile.
© Sun Sentinel
Excerpt from The Melancholy Eskimo: John Shea
Movie Review of “Hitler’s SS: A Portrait in Evil”
from Eskimo 15
The story opens in 1932 in a small German city. At the christening of Hans, we meet the fictional Hoffman family. His two older brothers, Karl (John Shea) and Helmut (Bill Nighy), are close friends. Karl, the younger, is a jock, and an unemployed auto mechanic.
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Shea’s performance as Karl is a bit shallow and earnest, and the transfer of this film to DVD is simply dreadful, giving the colors a blotchy look, alternately garish and washed-out.
© Robert T. Eldridge
Excerpt from Toronto Star 5/21/94: John Shea, posted by amac on Lois and Clark Message Board
By Jim Bawden Toronto Star May 21, 1994
Shea figures TV audiences dig a walk on the wild side as long as nicer characters show up as the nominal leads. He tried villainy comic- book style in the movie Honey, I Blew Up The Baby and played a Nazi stormtrooper in the miniseries Hitler's S.S. ``To be nasty is satisfying. You get everything out of your system and can go home a satisfied person - and, yes, a nicer one at that.''
© Toronto Star