Hitler's Reign of Terror is an independently released 1934 film that attacked the activities of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, and is often credited as being the "first-ever American anti-Nazi film." The film is a combination of newsreel footage, documentary, and reenactment. Despite the fact that the New York State Censor Board refused the film a license, it played for two weeks in New York City theaters which filled to capacity. In Chicago the film was only released after the title was changed to Hitler Reigns to placate the German government. Mordaunt Hall gave the film a negative review in The New York Times when it was released. Film Daily scoffed at the film for its prediction that Hitler's Germany was a future threat to world peace. Background After returning from World War I, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. lived in various places around the United States from New York to California and back again – along the way trying his hand at founding a newspaper and failing. In early 1933, he departed for Paris and began traveling around European capitals, along with two French cameramen, ultimately ending up in Vienna to cover mass meetings and political demonstrations. Although Vanderbilt had his sights set on an interview with Adolf Hitler, he asked the former Crown Prince of Germany, whom he had previously interviewed, why "you Hohenzollerns are so much easier to see than Hitler?" Finally on March 5, 1933, the day that the Nazis obtained a parliamentary plurality, Vanderbilt was able to secure what would be the closest he would get to an interview with Hitler. Amid the chaos, Vanderbilt yelled, "And what about the Jews, Your Excellency?", referring to the so-called "Jewish problem". Hitler shrugged off the question and instructed Vanderbilt to set up a meeting with Dr. Ernst Hanfstaengl, one of Hitler's intimates at the time. This meeting never took place. Story The picture opens with a re-enacted phone call between reporter Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. in Germany and narrator Edwin C. Hill in New York. Then a parade of people carrying torchlights in Berlin, where Jewish works and other political books are burned. Vanderbilt meets with Hill, and then flies out of the country. Hill talks with Vanderbilt about the problems in his country, then a re-enacted interview between Adolf Hitler and Vanderbilt. During a viewing of World War I battle footage, Hitler's home town, Leonidad, Austria, and his parents'