In Hollywood
Twardowski, a homosexual, left Germany shortly before the Nazi regime took power. Afterwards, he appeared in the 1932 drama Scandal for Sale starring Pat O'Brien. In 1933; he played Von Bergen in the war drama Private Jones, a prince in Adorable and a lawyer in The Devil's in Love.
The following year, Twardowski played Ivan Shuvalov in The Scarlet Empress. In 1935, Twardowski appeared as Count Nicholas of Hungary in the Cecil B. DeMille film The Crusades starring Loretta Young. It would be two years before Twardowski appeared in another movie and that was a small part in the romance Thin Ice starring Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power. Because of the time he spent directing and appearing in plays on stage, it would be another two years before he worked in another movie.
In 1939, Twardowski's career picked up as he appeared in two Warner Bros.' anti-Nazi movies. He played Max Helldorf in the thriller Confessions of a Nazi Spy. Twardowski then appeared in another thriller Espionage Agent starring Joel McCrea, which was released just three weeks after Germany invaded Poland.
Later in 1939, Twardowski appeared in the highly controversial anti-Nazi movie Hitler - Beast of Berlin. Twardowski played Albert Stahlhelm, a Stormtrooper of the Waffen-SS, who becomes disillusioned with the brutality of the Nazi regime. His character accidentally betrays his anti-Nazi friends to his fellow SS members, who murder him in retaliation.
With the outbreak of World War II and the subsequent increase in war movies, Twardowski had several uncredited roles as Nazis. He portrayed storm troopers, U-boat captains, and army officers. He appeared in seven films in 1942, including a large role as Captain Gemmler in the Nazi spy thriller Dawn Express. He next played an uncredited role as a sergeant in The Pied Piper starring Monty Woolley as an Englishman trying to get out of German-occupied France with a group of children. He also appeared in the comedy Joan of Ozark. Twardowski appeared as a German soldier in Desperate Journey with Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan. He received a bit part as a U-boat captain in RKO's The Navy Comes Through starring Pat O'Brien. He had another big part in the comedy Once Upon a Honeymoon starring Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers.
In 1942, Twardowski, appeared in a small role in Casablanca playing a German officer. In 1943, Twardowski appeared in Lang's Hangmen Also Die!, portraying the notorious Nazi SS Commandant Reinhard Heydrich. All of his lines in this movie were in German.
Twardowski played a German officer in Raoul Walsh's Background to Danger starring George Raft, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. This was followed by a bit part as a Nazi captain in the war drama First Comes Courage. Twardowski appeared in The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler. Later that year, he had a small part in the war drama The Cross of Lorraine starring Gene Kelly, Cedric Hardwicke and Lorre.
Twardowski's last two movies were 1944 war dramas; first he appeared as a doctor in The Hitler Gang and later as a German Red Cross representative in Resisting Enemy Interrogation.
