Howling with the Angels

In March 1939, the Nazis entered the Czechoslovakian capital of Prague. Jan Bodon, a captain in the defeated Czech army, was “invited” to join the Nazi cause—with his blond hair, blue eyes, and fluency in German, Bodon could have been the perfect Aryan…except for the fact that he was Jewish, a detail he kept well-hidden from everyone, beating a hasty retreat out of Czechoslovakia and joining the resistance movement in London. Bodon's filmmaker son Jean's Howling with the Angels traces his father's daring wartime adventures—culminating with the captain's role in the mission to assassinate the so-called “Butcher of Prague” Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler's Chief of Intelligence—while also detailing the sad fate of Czechoslovakia's Jewish population during World War II. While the story of Czechoslovakia's Jews has been told in several feature film classics—including The Shop on Main Street and The Fifth Horseman is Fear—the subject is powerfully and effectively revisited in this real-life portrait of a hero who risked his life to save his fellow countrymen, both Jewish and Christian. DVD extras include the bonus short “My Dear Kassa.” Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)