History Film / ItHappenedHere

* ReleasedToElsewhere: What's supposed to be a countryside hospital for workers afflicted with tuberculosis is actually in the business of euthanizing them.

* AlternateHistory: An opening narration explains that Britain was invaded in July 1940, with a nascent Resistance quickly crushed without outside support. The film is set four years later -- the United States has entered the war and is supporting a resurgent partisan movement with carrier-based aircraft. Most German troops have been shifted to the Russian front to combat a Soviet breakthrough in the Urals, leaving the occupation of Britain to a token force, including volunteers from the British Legion of SS.

* DayOfTheJackboot

* ReleasedToElsewhere

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere'' a 1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis about a totalitarian government taking over the United States.

* ShownTheirWork: On one occasion a group of [[UsefulNotes/WeAreNotTheWehrmacht Bundeswehr]] tank officers training in Britain were surprised to see German WW2 soldiers marching through Parliament Square; they inspected the troops and pronounced them "absolutely correct".

The concept of the film was first developed in 1956 by eighteen year-old Kevin Brownlow, and was eight years in the making -- the longest ever production schedule to date according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It had a cast of hundreds; all volunteers with only two professional actors among them. While trying to find WW2 uniforms for the film Brownlow met sixteen-year old history buff Andrew Mollo, and the two decided to work together on the project. Brownlow would later become a prominent film historian and Mollo a leading military historian. ''It Happened Here'' also launched the career of cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, who went on to such films as ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' and ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''.

An AlternateHistory film set in a [[WorldWarTwo Nazi-occupied Britain]], that explores the moral slippery slope leading to collaboration.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/It_Happened_Here.jpg]]

The concept of the film was first developed in 1956 by eighteen year-old Kevin Brownlow, and was eight years in the making -- the longest ever production schedule to date according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It had a cast of hundreds; all volunteers with only two professional actors among them. While trying to find WW2 uniforms for the film Brownlow met sixteen-year old history buff Andrew Mollo, and the two decided to work together on the project. Brownlow would later become a prominent film historian and Mollo a leading military historian. ''It Happened Here'' also launched the career of cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, who went on to such films as ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' and ''TheEmpireStrikesBack''.

* LesCollaborateurs: Subverts the popular view that only self-serving opportunists and power-hungry fanatics would work with an invading force.

-->'''Dr Fletcher:''' "The appalling thing about fascism is that you've got to use fascist methods to get rid of it. We've all got a bit of it in us, and it doesn't take a lot to bring it to the surface."

* LaResistance: Subverted. The British civilians in Shaftesbury are clearly more afraid of the partisans than they are of their German occupiers.
* LesCollaborateurs: Subverts the popular view that only self-serving opportunists and power-hungry fanatics would work with an invading force.

* ShownTheirWork: On one occasion a group of [[WeAreNotTheWehrmacht Bundeswehr]] tank officers training in Britain were surprised to see German WW2 soldiers marching through Parliament Square; they inspected the troops and pronounced them "absolutely correct".

The concept of the film was first developed in 1956 by eighteen year-old Kevin Brownlow, and was eight years in the making -- the longest ever production schedule to date according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It had a cast of hundreds; all volunteers with only two professional actors among them. While trying to find WW2 uniforms for the film Brownlow met sixteen-year old history buff Andrew Mollo, and the two decided to work together on the project. Brownlow would later become a prominent film historian and Mollo a leading military historian. ''It Happened Here'' also launched the career of cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, who went on to such films as ''TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' and ''TheEmpireStrikesBack''.

* StateSec

* PuttingOnTheReich: Justified, of course, by Britain actually being under German occupation.

* NewscasterCameo: Veteran wartime [[TheBBC BBC]] radio announcers Alvar Lidell and John Snagge gave their services free to voice reconstructed {{newsreel}}s and radio broadcasts.

** Even more appalling when realize that Colin Jordan, the man playing him, was a ''real'' British fascist.

* LesCollaborateurs: Subverts the popular view that only self-serving opportunists and power-hungry fanatics would work with an invading force.

* ExecutiveMeddling: United Artists cut seven minutes of film showing British fascist leader Colin Jordan exposing his views. It took over thirty years for Kevin Brownlow to regain the rights to the film so it could be released as originally intended.

* NoBudget: The reason why the movie took so long to make. The Internet Movie Database estimates the total budget as $20,000. The cast was filled with amateurs or professionals working for free. Creator/StanleyKubrick donated film stock left over from [[DoctorStrangelove ''Dr. Strangelove'']]. Gill and Brownlow borrowed equipment. Colin Jordan and the other real-life British fascists got their controversial parts in the movie because Gill and Brownlow couldn't afford to pay actors.

An AlternateHistory film, set in a [[WorldWarTwo Nazi-occupied Britain]], that explores the moral slippery slope leading to collaboration.

* NoBudget: The reason why the movie took so long to make. The Internet Movie Database estimates the total budget as $20,000. The cast was filled with amateurs or professionals working for free. StanleyKubrick donated film stock left over from [[DoctorStrangelove ''Dr. Strangelove'']]. Gill and Brownlow borrowed equipment. Colin Jordan and the other real-life British fascists got their controversial parts in the movie because Gill and Brownlow couldn't afford to pay actors.

* LiterallyAllusionTitle: ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere'' a 1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis about a totalitarian government taking over the United States.

The title is a reference to ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere'', a 1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis about a totalitarian government taking over the United States.

* LaResistance: Subverted. The British civilians in Shaftesbury are clearly more afraid of the partisans than they are of their German occupiers.

The title is a reference to ''ItCantHappenHere'', a 1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis about a totalitarian government taking over the United States.

The title is a reference to ''It Can't Happen Here'', a 1935 novel about a Hitler-a-like taking over the United States.

* LesCollaborateurs: Subverts the popular view that only self-serving opportunists and power-hungry fanatics would work with an invading force.

* LesCollaborateurs: Subverts the popular view that only self-serving opportunists and power-hungry fanatics would work with an invading force.

* VillainsOutShopping: A montage shows German soldiers playing tourist in London, mixing with the locals and chatting up girls.