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Plan for Destruction Poster

Plan for Destruction

1943 | 22m | English

(210 votes)

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Popularity: 0.7 (history)

Director: Edward L. Cahn
Writer: Karl Kamb, John C. Higgins
Staring:
Details

Plan for Destruction is a 1943 American short propaganda film directed by Edward Cahn. It looks at the Geopolitik ideas of the ex-World War I professor, General Karl Haushofer, who is portrayed as the head of a huge organization for gathering information of strategic value and the mastermind behind Adolf Hitler's wars and plans to enslave the world. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
Release Date: Apr 22, 1943
Director: Edward L. Cahn
Writer: Karl Kamb, John C. Higgins
Genres:
Keywords world war ii, nazism
Production Companies Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Box Office Revenue: $0
Budget: $0
Updates Updated: Jan 20, 2026
Entered: May 11, 2024
Starring

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Full Credits

Name Character
Lewis Stone Commentator
Frank Reicher Karl Ernst Haushofer
George Lynn Rudolf Hess
Frederick Giermann Nazi Radio Announcer
Name Job
Edward L. Cahn Director
Karl Kamb Story, Screenplay
John C. Higgins Story, Screenplay
Jackson Rose Director of Photography
Harry Komer Editor
Richard Duce Art Direction
Name Title
Organization Category Person
Popularity Metrics

Popularity History


Year Month Avg Max Min
2024 4 1 1 1
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2024 7 3 11 0
2024 8 4 9 1
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2024 11 3 9 1
2024 12 1 3 1
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2025 7 0 0 0
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2025 12 1 4 0
2026 1 2 10 0
2026 2 0 0 0

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Reviews

Geronimo1967
6.0

I didn’t love Lewis Stone’s narration here, not least because he kept referring to Britain/British and England/English which always strikes me as lazy writing. That said, though, it’s still quite an interesting assessment of the forward-planning skills of former Imperial general Karl Haushofer (Fran ... k Reicher). Following his defeat in the Great War he took up an academic position that not only facilitated his planning for the future domination of the world by a revitalised Germany but that also provided him with lots of fertile young and impressionable minds to indoctrinate. His former assistant Rudolph Hess (George Lynn) suggests to him that he meet a prisoner with a small moustache and the rest is history. It mixes some dramatic elements with some news actuality to deliver to American audiences an idea of just how meticulously the Nazis had planned their “Politik” agenda and at how this could all too readily impact on the USA, however geographically detached the maps might suggest it is. There is a positive message for the audience here suggesting that by uniting against the Axis powers, there are some sunlit uplands ahead - but there is more work to be done.

Jul 06, 2025