The Seventh Cross
The Jewish Granach fled to the Soviet Union when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. When the Soviet Union also proved inhospitable, he settled in Hollywood, where he made his first American film appearance as Kopalski in Ernst Lubitsch's "Ninotchka" (1939) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Granach proved indispensable to film makers during the war years, effectively portraying both dedicated Nazis (he was Julius Streicher in "The Hitler Gang", 1944) and loyal anti-fascists. He portrayed Gestapo Inspector Alois Gruber in Fritz Lang’s "Hangmen Also Die!" (1943). His last film appearance was in MGM's "The Seventh Cross" (1944), in which almost the entire supporting cast was prominent European refugees.