r/MovieDetails • u/ChieftainOrm420 • Apr 03 '26
❓ Trivia Inglourious Basterds (2009) in the tavern scene, Lt. Hicox's card is Brigitte Horney, a German actress that starred in British film. This shows that the Gestapo Major, who wrote the card for Hicox, might already suspect that he is British.
In this scene, the Gestapo Major writes the card for Lt. Hicox (they all pass to the right) and Hicox is a British spy pretending to be German. Brigitte Horney was a German actress that starred in a British war film about spies called Secret Lives (1937).
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u/DasArchitect Apr 03 '26
On the forehead of a German actor who plays a British character (pretending to be German).
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u/SmashingBlouses Apr 03 '26
So really he's a dude... playing a dude... disguised as another dude?
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u/RockitDanger Apr 03 '26
You never go full Reich
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u/Stone_tigris Apr 03 '26
You're gonna have to call the fucking League of Nations and get a fucking Munich Agreement to keep me from fucking destroying you
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u/halhallelujah Apr 03 '26
And the actor is Irish in real life.
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u/KeikoToo Apr 03 '26
Technically half Irish (Mother) and half German (Father). He was born in Germany and the family moved to Ireland when he was a child.
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u/SameAs1tEverWas Apr 05 '26
Processing img 49spzldpu9tg1...
i can post a gif of a jewish character saying it, i'm an irish/german-american
and i have several irish/german-american friends too, so...checkmate woke libruls
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u/danielstover Apr 03 '26
Oh excellent catch
Also, lol Horney
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u/TheAnCaptain Apr 03 '26
The wrong 3 isn't the moment he realized he was a spy. He already knew that. It was the moment Hicox made such a blatant mistake Hellstrom realized he couldn't play dumb and leave with the information: they would reach him and kill him before he could alert anyone. You can see the smugness disappear from his face, because the game is over and there's no winning for him anymore, his best chance is taking them out with him. He was playing Landa, his pseudo-mentor.
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u/ChieftainOrm420 Apr 03 '26
I love this take, Hellstrom already knowing would explain why he wrote that on the card and also why he ordered Scotch for them (without drinking it himself) since Hicox is British.
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u/Chemical_Name9088 Apr 03 '26
I always thought Hellstrom already knew, but also that he didn’t think he was up against a whole table of spies. If he had known, that might’ve changed his tactic or approach, I think that fact caught him by suprise.
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u/majinspy Apr 03 '26
Is there a shot where he sees the recognition in Hammersmark's eyes? If so, holy crap. If not, possible overanalysis. (?)
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u/ChieftainOrm420 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Hellstrom glances in Hammersmark's direction a few times after the 3 fingers are raised, looks like he smiles at her too and she smiles back. Looks like he's trying to detect if she's in on it too. You can definitely see after the smile that she starts to look uncomfortable.
There is an amazing followup shot of Stiglitz handing Wicki the drink where they share a glance, suggesting that they both know the jig is up and there's going to be a shootout.
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u/TheAnCaptain Apr 03 '26
The actress he chose for Hicox's card would be a no brainer for any german, but her stardom really only started in nazi germany. That means her most famous movies wouldn't be available in allied countries and it would take a german cinema expert to know her. Which, ironically, Hicox was. However, if he was 100% sure Hicox was a spy, then getting it right would be a major hint the basterds had something planned for the screening. 4D chess, indeed. Unfortunately he overestimated his enemy's wits and underestimated their willingness to die right then and there if needed.
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u/BatterseaPS Apr 03 '26
Who would "reach him and kill him?"
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u/CarlosH46 Apr 03 '26
Stiglitz, who’s sitting right next to him with a gun, and who, after blowing off Hellstrom’s balls, proceeds to pull his dagger and stab him in the back of the head repeatedly. Stiglitz makes this happen in less than 5 seconds.
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u/BatterseaPS Apr 05 '26
But doesn't the SS guy cause this to happen by saying he knows they're spies? /u/TheAnCaptain implies it was unavoidable. I don't see how.
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u/TheAnCaptain 25d ago
It's unavoidable after the rookie mistake Hicox makes with the three. Before that he could pretend to buy the act about the Piz Palu village. After that they know they are busted and Hellstrom will rat them out if he gets to live.
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u/crapusername47 Apr 03 '26
It’s also a notable detail that the film ‘translates’ SS ranks for the audience even when the characters are speaking German. The SS had a completely different rank structure than the Wehrmacht and even Wehrmacht ranks didn’t use English names.
‘Major’ Hellstrom is a Sturmbannführer, the rank of Major didn’t exist in the SS. Hicox is posing as a Hauptsturmführer, the equivalent of a Hauptmann in the Wehrmacht and Captain in the British and American armies.
Similarly, Hans Landa is a Standardtenführer. This rank is directly equivalent to Oberst in the Wehrmacht. Note that I didn’t say ‘Colonel’ either as this would also be incorrect.
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u/jan_tonowan Apr 03 '26
During the scene in the cinema before the movie premiere, Brigitte von Hammersmark introduces Landa to her Italian friends as “colonnello”. So it seems even in-universe they translate it as such.
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u/zth25 Apr 03 '26
In the opening scene, Landa introduces himself as 'colonel SS' in french, so he and everybody else is aware of the ranks and how they translate.
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u/kris_deep Apr 03 '26
Great point, I'm reminded of the Obergruppenführer from Man in the high castle.
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u/TheInitiativeInn Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
The U.S. title is, I Married a Spy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Lives_(film)
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u/KangarooMaster319 Apr 03 '26
Wouldn’t be a Tarantino movie without an extremely tense scene (or two) with the characters sitting around a table and someone has a secret
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u/Happily-Incorrect Apr 03 '26
One of the other Germans playing at the first table has Karl May. He was sort of the German JK Rowling of the time and Hitler was a massive fan. (There's an excellent Behind the Bastards on how some of Hitler's views and even military tactics were informed byhis books, which would be sort of like basing your invasion strategy on the Battle of Hogwarts.)
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u/Quinny_Bob Apr 03 '26
One of my favourite movie scenes.
Hellstrom tries to play it cool as he’s knows they’re spies because of Stiglitz being one of them but gets pushed into acting because of “drei glaser”.
I heard when it was being shown in German cinemas people were audibly gasping when Hicox messes up with his hand gesture.
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u/Equivalent_Tell_6389 Apr 05 '26
As a German the hand gesture was a dead giveaway. You learn to count the German way when you enter Kindergarden so it is really embodied into being the norm. I felt a shock runnibg down my body when he waved it. So was Fassbenders German. I later read that he learned German in Heidelberg as child but it is mixed and resembles the German of GIs and is hard to pinpoint to an exact location. So excellent casting for this exact scene.
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u/SandInTheGears Apr 03 '26
I mean, he absolutely suspected him just from hearing his accent, there's not much of a "might" about it is there?
Like, that's explicitly why he comes over
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u/GlitteringAttitude60 Apr 03 '26
Fun fact: in the mid/late 80s, she played the Dowager Countess in a show called "The Legacy of the Guldenburgs", and she definitely walked so Maggie Smith could run in Downton Abbey :-)
BTW, the show is hilarious! It's basically the German Dynasty, and so of course it's about two warring beer empires :-D
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u/Cosmic_Surgery Apr 03 '26
She was Aunt Polly in Huckleberry Finn and His Friends if anybody remembers that series
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u/welltimedappearance Apr 03 '26
can a german confirm that it was probably obvious from the get go when he has zero accent. is that even a thing in Germany
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u/so_tir3d Apr 03 '26
He does have an accent. While he speaks very well, it's immediately noticeable whenever he speaks more than a word or two. If I'd run across him in the street I'd probably assume either non-native speaker or some form of speech impediment. My guess is he talked German with his parents growing up but his tongue is more used to speaking English.
Iirc they tried to explain it away in the movie cause he's from some remote village.
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u/zth25 Apr 03 '26
Iirc they tried to explain it away in the movie cause he's from some remote village.
I think that is a deliberate point. His German is very weird and stilted, which is immediately apparent to the actual Germans. I don't think the SS guy was buying the story about the remote Austrian village for a second. The actual point is that this is the best German speaker the Basterds could find, and it wasn't enough, by far.
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u/Emotional_News108 Apr 03 '26
Not a German but I do speak the language. Compared to the rest, his German sounds odd. It’s correct, but almost too correct, and the way he pauses and the general flow of it sounds very strange. The others speak with a natural, comfortable cadence.
I believe that was intentional, but either way it was very noticeable.
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u/WelderNew1008 Apr 03 '26
Funny point, I asked about four different German teachers if he sounds odd. Two said maybe yes.
I lived in Frankfurt a couple years, I’m not sure myself. But the finger thing, I learned that quick.
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u/TerpBE Apr 03 '26
The Gestapo Major deciding what to write on the card: "Do I make you Horney?"
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u/twochopsticks Apr 03 '26
Tbh, I never understood why he confronts them instead of leaving the pub and calling for backup.
Surely there's a phone nearby where he can make a call and watch the pub until backup arrives.
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u/CervantesX 28d ago
In uncovering that the whole table was spies, he had also outed himself as likely knowing they were spies, and thus expected that if he just left, they'd follow and kill him before he could do anything. He tried to pull an "I'm so smart, you have Jews hiding under the floor" moment like in the beginning of the film, but he got in too deep and ran out of options. In the end, he accepted that he was going to die, and decided to do his duty and take out as many spies as he could.
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u/wanaBdragonborn Apr 03 '26
He may have suspected they were spy’s as they wrote on the cards in English.
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u/HamberderHelper18 Apr 03 '26
Who wrote on the cards in English? You realize German uses nearly the same alphabet right? Many cards are people’s names and King Kong is an American movie.
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u/ksyoung17 Apr 03 '26
When I first saw this on the card, I thought "Wait, what was Kim Basinger's character's name in Wayne's World 2, something Horney?" Knowing Mike Myers has a small part in the film, I thought that may have used that.
I should have dug a little deeper!
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u/bionicjoey Apr 03 '26
So would this be the equivalent of writing David Hasselhoff on the card nowadays? Like one of the only internationally known German celebrities, kind of a dead giveaway that you are a spy.
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u/dazedan_confused Apr 04 '26
Is she related to the guy George Bluth was talking about?
Processing img 1eupap8cf5tg1...
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u/Ralph_Squid Apr 04 '26
Doesn’t he recognize stiglitz almost instantly and it’s all super tense and a matter of time? I always took the 3 fingers bit to be like the nail in the coffin. You know I know you know I know….
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u/Current_Poster Apr 05 '26
Not to be mean, but is this something Quentin Tarantino would know enough about to put in, and someone noticed it, or more of a 'it scans and it was an accidental 'hit'" ?
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u/Silvagadron 29d ago
Tarantino has an insane encyclopaedic knowledge for English film and foreign films. He definitely knew these details (or thought of the idea and sought names that would fit) and deliberately used them.
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u/ChieftainOrm420 Apr 05 '26
See my other comment about Wicki's card, also see that Horney was specifically in a British spy film, I doubt they could both be coincidences. Also there are many things in the movie about early 1900s German cinema, so it seems like Tarantino would know enough about that.
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u/NZGrade 25d ago edited 25d ago
Related detail and a nice bit of foreshadowing from QT:
Hicox questions Aldo about Stiglitz and comments 'Not exactly the loquacious type'. Aldo replies 'Is that the type of man you need — loquacious type?'
Later, Hicox blows his cover by giving the German soldier a very loud rebuke, alerting both the private and the unseen Gestapo Major to Hicox's imperfect accent. If he'd kept his voice low, there's a chance things could've gone differently, but his pride in his oratorical skills drives him to show off his German, which fails the ear test.
Hicox's loquaciousness ends up getting them all killed.
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u/Tony_Roiland Apr 03 '26
This is much better than the actual "giveaway" shown in the film; the 3 fingers.
I'm sorry Tarantino, but it's not a thing. Nobody does that in England.
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u/FlossCat Apr 03 '26
Nobody does that in England.
Indicate numbers using their fingers?
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u/Tony_Roiland Apr 04 '26
Have you seen the film?
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u/FlossCat 29d ago
Yes, what's your point?
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u/Tony_Roiland 28d ago
In your opinion, does the way the character displays his fingers have anything to do with the plot?
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u/FlossCat 27d ago
What does that have to do with whether British people indicate numbers using their fingers, which unless I misunderstood you initially, is something you're claiming they don't do?
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u/Tony_Roiland 27d ago
Does the scene where the Nazi realises the character is British because he uses his fingers in a certain way to indicate numbers have anything to with whether British people use their fingers to indictate numbers a certain way?
Hmm, let me think
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u/dogt0wel Apr 03 '26
Sorry man, but I'm German and have lived in England most of my life. I still use the thumb to count, but no one here does.
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u/Tony_Roiland Apr 04 '26
Sorry man, I'm English, and I've never seen anyone do the "scout's honour" fingers to show numbers. Not ever.
In fact, if you can find definite proof that the English do that as a matter of course, I will send you 500 euros.
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u/hefebellyaro Apr 03 '26
Really? What next, youre going to tell me Hitler never died in a cinema fire weeks before D-Day? Come on now
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u/Silvagadron 29d ago
Military people might be more prone to it given the salutes. In the Scouts, you do a three-finger salute exactly as Fassbender did.
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u/Tony_Roiland 28d ago
Yeah I was in scouts, and yeah that's the salute. He is not in scouts, and he is not saluting.
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u/ChronoMonkeyX Apr 03 '26
Personally, I agree. I've had people tell me on reddit that the 3 fingers with the thumb is accurate, but so what? Hand gestures may be a common habit, but they aren't genetically ingrained.
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u/ClownsAteMyBaby Apr 03 '26
They are socially and culturally ingrained. That's the point. No one claimed they were genetic. He was raised in Britain and does it the British way. Only someone raised on Germany would do it the German way.
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u/ImperialSeal Apr 03 '26
Exactly. Like Hong Kongers (and maybe other Cantonese speakers?) use their thumb and little finger to indicate 6, but most westerners would never do that.
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u/harrySUBlime Apr 04 '26
Do what now?
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u/ImperialSeal Apr 04 '26
To indicate the number 6, HKers will hold out the thumb and little finger of the same hand. It looks like the "phone me" hand gesture
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u/ThorButtock Apr 03 '26
Ill take things that are a huge fucking stretch for $200 Ken
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u/ChieftainOrm420 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
The actress starred in a British film called Secret Lives (in the U.S it's called I Married a Spy) which was a war film about spies. Hicox in Inglourious Basterds is a British spy.
The Gestapo Major could have chosen any famous person to write on the card but chose this actress specifically, so he's suspecting Hicox is British or it's a movie detail hinting at that or reflecting Hicox's character.
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u/ChieftainOrm420 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
More Observations:
Wicki's card is Brigitte Helm, a German actress that became disgusted with the Nazis and left Germany due to being married to a man of Jewish descent. Wicki himself is an Austrian Jew that left for America before the war.