'Casablanca,' the iconic World War II-era film, was recut for its German release, with all references to the Nazis removed.

The Hays Code, a set of moral precepts for Hollywood movies during the industry's golden age, forced "Casablanca" to revise its original ending.

Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart, the stars of 'Casablanca,' bonded over how little they thought of 'Casablanca.'

German expressionism produced some of horror’s earliest classics

After World War I, German filmmakers turned from reality to the surreal, fusing experimental art with the nascent world of film. Some of the movement’s most notable films, like FW Murnau’s “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” and Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” were intent on frightening their audiences.

‘Shoah’ director criticized ‘Schindler’s List’ for its portrayal of the Holocaust

“I was watching the Spielberg film, and I thought he’ll never go so far,” Claude Lanzmann said. “And he did. But he even created suspense … And these people, all of them are actors. All of them. They’re actors. They do not look like people who have had these experiences. It is an adventure film.”

The Cannes Film Festival was created as a response to fascism

Initially called the International Film Festival, Cannes was created as an alternative to the Venice Film Festival, which French diplomat Philippe Erlanger believed had been politicized by the influence of Hitler and Mussolini.

How Audrey Hepburn became a spy during the Nazi occupation

Despite her status as one of Hollywood’s most beloved actresses, Audrey Hepburn experienced a war-torn childhood in Europe that few people know about. During her upbringing in the Netherlands, the Nazi occupation caused Hepburn to quit her life as a ballerina and made her family go hungry. In the face of adversity, Hepburn bravely carried messages for the Dutch resistance. Learn more about the star’s compelling life before finding fame.

After actress Ingrid Bergman had a child out of wedlock, a Colorado senator proposed granting the government the ability to ban performers deemed morally objectionable.

The most famous line attributed to 'Casablanca'—'Play it again, Sam'—is never said in the movie.

In 1980, Steven Spielberg added a scene depicting the interior of an alien spaceship to a rerelease of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' at the studio's request, but later regretted the decision, believing it depleted the movie's enchanting mystery.

Watch 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'

Robert Wiene’s 1920 film remains a significant film for the horror genre, illustrating the power that relatively simple visual choices, like shadows and jagged angles, can have on an audience.

Although it's now considered a pivotal film in the history of American cinema, 'The Wizard of Oz' was initially panned by some of its contemporary critics.

Explore a critic's list of the best Ingrid Bergman performances, including 'Casablanca,' 'Notorious,' and 'Autumn Sonata.'

Disney chipped away at its debt by creating propaganda during World War II

Disney began producing training videos for the Navy and propaganda films for US involvement in World War II, including the shorts "Der Fuehrer's Face," "The Spirit of '43," and "Donald Gets Drafted." The effort provided a much-needed cash injection, allowing Disney to continue producing films.

European leaders pursued appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s, hoping to avoid war.

'Barbenheimer' resulted in a historic box-office event

The cultural sensation that erupted when Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" and Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" shared an opening night was something that no one could have predicted. "Barbenheimer," as the pairing was called, became a semiserious litmus test for relationships: Who wanted to see which film, and in what order? The viral moment led to box-office gold for both movies, as well as a few Oscars.

Why the Nazis hated the Bauhaus style

The Nazis viewed the Bauhaus internationalist and collectivist philosophy to be communist and considered its modernist aesthetic as an affront to the more classical German identity they wished to project. This article from the Conversation explores the history behind that conflict, which forced the Bauhaus to move several times before ultimately closing.

Authoritarian regimes sometimes used film dubbing to censor ideas

Dubbing rose in popularity in the early 20th century because of relatively low literacy rates, which made subtitles impractical. Totalitarian regimes—including Mussolini's Italy, Franco's Spain, and Hitler's Germany—used dubbing to remove or alter unflattering or countercultural dialogue.

Private home footage of Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun

Care to see what else Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, were up to during World War II? Then check out this National Archives footage. Some of the videos have been colorized, and all were taken from a collection titled Motion Picture Films Confiscated from Foreign Countries and Sources, between 1940–44.

Dorothea Lange's photos of Japanese Americans interred in US concentration camps were censored.

After a 6-year exile, Ingrid Bergman returned to the US to accept an award for her performance in 'Anastasia.'

Nazi Germany replaced Advent calendars with depictions of family life under Nazi rule

During World War II, the Nazi regime banned printed Advent calendars because of religious messaging. Officials instead produced state-approved versions featuring swastikas, tanks, and Nazi symbols.

How one silent movie came to define science fiction

Fritz Lang's 1927 epic "Metropolis" set the template for much of the science fiction that followed, establishing themes that would come to define the genre through films like "Star Wars" and novels like "Brave New World." This short documentary from DW digs into the history of the film and its long-lasting impact.

Exploring Kristallnacht

Nov. 9 and 10, 1938, saw Nazi members break into Jewish stores and homes across Germany in retaliation for the assassination of a German diplomat by a Polish Jew. The event—called "Kristallnacht," meaning "night of the broken glass"—was tacitly condoned by the German authorities at the time. This richly produced interactive explores the events of Kristallnacht guided by one of its survivors, Charlotte Knobloch.

Champagne played a role in resisting the Nazis

When France surrendered to the Nazis in 1940, the invaders occupied the north. This was home to wine regions like Champagne and Bordeaux, which the Nazis were eager to loot. Winemakers took a stand by sheltering dissidents in their cellars, passing intelligence across borders, and even giving their lives to the cause.

Watch 'Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse,' the documentary about Francis Ford Coppola's notorious production behind 'Apocalypse Now,' shot by Coppola's wife, Eleanor.

The 'Movie Brats'—the nickname given to 1970s film directors like Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and others—ushered in a new era of Hollywood.

Spielberg improvised most of the iconic D-Day scene from 'Saving Private Ryan'

Although action sequences are often tightly choreographed, one of cinema's most famous war scenes was mostly shot on the fly. Spielberg wrote seven pages (or approximately seven minutes of screen time) for the scene, though the final cut of the sequence was 25 minutes long.

Ingrid Bergman left her husband for Italian director Roberto Rossellini, sparking a major scandal in Hollywood's Golden Age.

The Bauhaus artists who became Nazi collaborators

The Nazis deplored the Bauhaus style, until they found a way to use it for themselves. This deep dive explores the connection between the Nazis and three Bauhaus-affiliated designers—Franz Ehrlich, who was sent to Buchenwald and forced to design the camp's gates (seen below), Fritz Ertl, who designed the shower rooms at Auschwitz, and Herbert Bayer, who helped design Third Reich propaganda.

Some senior Nazis fled to South America and lived for decades

Using so-called "ratlines" through Spain, Italy, and into South American countries like Argentina, many of Adolf Hitler's closest associates evaded capture after the fall of Berlin in 1945. This video details the fate of eight, including infamous doctor Josef Mengele and logistics expert Adolf Eichmann.

Classic movies are prone to decomposition because they're captured on nitrate film

Nitrate film was the standard in early Hollywood and is prone to decomposition over time. It's led to an estimated 75% of early American films being lost to history.

Listen to Arnold Schoenberg's Holocaust tribute, 'A Survivor from Warsaw.'

'Bonnie and Clyde,' the 1967 film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, was the first major American movie to feature graphic violence.

Director Arthur Penn used the then-new Squibb technology, which triggered realistic and bloody bullet wounds, to portray graphic violence, at the time a taboo in American cinema.

Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 launched World War II

On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany launched a surprise invasion of Poland using blitzkrieg—coordinated air bombardments and armored assaults—to overwhelm Polish defenses within weeks. This lightning-strike strategy shocked the world and signaled both the start of World War II and a revolutionary shift in modern military tactics.

Watch Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 film noir, 'Rebecca'

"Rebecca" was Hitchcock's first American film and is the only Hitchcock film to win the Academy Award for best picture. The story, based on a 1938 novel by Daphne du Maurier, is about a widower (played by acting legend Laurence Olivier) and the haunting direction his life takes in her wake.

The Bauhaus school developed a sleek typography that intentionally contrasted Nazi propaganda.

Alfred Hitchcock's 1945 film 'Spellbound,' starring Ingrid Bergman, features a surreal scene designed by Salvador Dalí.

The first 'Evil Dead' film significantly removed violent scenes in order to earn an 'X' rating in the United Kingdom, prohibiting it from viewers under 18, though police still seized it from video stores as if it were illegal contraband.

The Berlin Wall physically separated East and West Berlin for nearly three decades, preventing East Germans from fleeing to the West and earning the nickname 'the Iron Curtain.'

Why Captain America sparked outrage in 1940

In 1940, Captain America’s debut showed him punching Hitler months before the US entered WWII. The bold cover sparked backlash and even threats.

See Minnelli's iconic performance of 'Maybe This Time' that helped earn her an Oscar

In the film "Cabaret," Minnelli performs the show tune as Sally Bowles, a protagonist embarking on a new love affair in 1930s Berlin. Minnelli's emotive performance and belting vocals helped land her the prestigious acting award.

One US psychiatrist at Nuremberg viewed top Nazis like Göring as normal

The surviving leaders of the Nazi movement had overseen a catastrophic war and the cruel extermination of millions. US psychiatrist Douglas Kelley evaluated the 22 men ahead of their infamous trials, viewing them as intelligent, cultured men without a moral compass. Kelley would later die by suicide.

Dreaming under the Nazi Regime

Days after Hitler seized power, a man told psychoanalyst Charlotte Beradt that he had dreamed of being forced to raise his arm in a Nazi salute ("It took me half an hour to get my arm up, inch by inch"). Beradt recorded this dream and many others so they "might one day serve as evidence." This is an English translation of her work, "The Third Reich of Dreams."

The studio behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled its promotion before the film's national release, looking to cut its losses.

The treaty that ended the First World War laid the groundwork for the Second.

Many of Spielberg's films were inspired by childhood experiences

Steven Spielberg was inspired to make “Saving Private Ryan” after seeing the toll war took on his father’s generation. Similarly, he felt called to direct “Schindler’s List” by the Holocaust survivors he met when he was only three years old.

Rob Reiner fell in love while working on the romantic comedy 'When Harry Met Sally...,' inspiring him to change the movie's ending to make it happier.

Rewrite 1930s Germany with this alternative history game of politics

You are at the head of the Social Democratic Party in Germany in 1928 and must use parliamentary politics, the media, and more to oppose the ascendant National Socialists. This text-based, narrative simulation becomes a lesson in the complexities of political history.

Martha Graham refused to perform at the 1936 Berlin Olympics because she believed doing so would be a tacit endorsement of the Nazis

See what it was like to live in the United States during World War II

In America, life was transformed by total war: sixteen million service members left civilian life, while massive industrial production demanded labor. Women, minorities, and teens filled factories, fueling boomtown growth and breaking social barriers. Simultaneously, rationing, recycling drives, Victory Gardens, ration stamps, blackout drills, and war bond campaigns permeated daily routines.