Hangmen Also Die! (1943)

After the Nazi administrator of Czechoslovakia is shot, his assassin tries to elude the Gestapo and struggles with his impulse to give himself up as hostages are executed.

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Bertolt Brecht (adaptation), Fritz Lang (adaptation),

Stars:

Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski	...	Reinhard Heydrich
Brian Donlevy	...	Dr. Franticek Svoboda / Karel Vanek
Walter Brennan	...	Prof. Stephen Novotny
Anna Lee	...	Nasha Novotny
Nana Bryant	...	Mrs. Hellie Novotny
William Roy	...	Boda Novotny (as Billy Roy)
Margaret Wycherly	...	Ludmilla Novotny
Dennis O'Keefe	...	Jan Horak (Nasha's Fiancé)
Gene Lockhart	...	Emil Czaka (Brewer)
Tonio Selwart	...	Chief of Gestapo Kurt Haas
Alexander Granach	...	Gestapo Insp. Alois Gruber
Reinhold Schünzel	...	Gestapo Insp. Ritter
Ludwig Donath	...	Schirmer (as Louis Donath)
Arno Frey	...	Camp Lieutenant Itnut
Sarah Padden	...	Mrs. Georgia Dvorak (Grocer)

Storyline

On May 27, 1942 the Nazi Reichsprotector of Bohemia/Moravia, the "Hangman" Reinhard Heydrich, died from the bullets of unidentified resistance fighters. Hangmen Also Die is the story of Heydrich's assassination in fictionalized form. It was Bertolt Brecht's only comparitively successful Hollywood project; the money he received allowed him to write "The Visions of Simone Marchand", "Schwyk in the Second World War" and his adaptation of Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi". Hanns Eisler won an Academy Award for his musical score.

---

Plot Keywords:

nazi | assassination | resistance | gestapo | hostage | 

---

Taglines:

Fritz Lang's masterpiece of intrigue and deception.

---

Genres:

Film-Noir | Thriller | War

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

15 April 1943 (USA)

Also Known As:

Never Surrender

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arnold Pressburger Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

134 min 134 min (Turner library print) 117 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Two cast members have played characters involved with the sale of real estate to the vampire based on Bram Stoker's novel. Alexander Granach appeared as Knock, the House Broker in F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu. Dwight Frye appeared as Renfield in Tod Browning's Dracula.

---

Goofs

As the boy (Boda) picks the lock to open the door where Jan is tied up, he dumps the contents of his pockets on to the floor outside the room. Once he gets the door open he immediately goes inside and releases Jan. Once Jan is released, he and the boy rush out of the room but the things are no longer on the floor.

---

Quotes

Dr. Franticek Svoboda: Dedric, what about the taxi driver?
Dedic: Jumped out of a window at the Gestapo. They'll get nothing from him.
Dr. Franticek Svoboda: I never met him. I wish I did.

---

Crazy Credits

The end of the film reads "NOT The End".

---

Connections

Referenced in Contempt (1963)

---

Soundtracks

"Vltava"
(The Moldau) (uncredited)
From "Má vlast (My Country)"
Music by Bedrich Smetana
Played in the movie theater
Also played on the radio during dinner

User Reviews

HANGMEN ALSO DIE! (Fritz Lang, 1943) ***

One of a handful of propaganda films made by Hollywood during WWII to show how various occupied European countries dealt with the situation; similar films included THE MOON IS DOWN (1941), EDGE OF DARKNESS (1943), THE NORTH STAR (1943) and THIS LAND IS MINE (1943). This one, however, differs from these in that it tackles a real-life event i.e. the assassination of Heydrich - dubbed "The Hangman" (his assassination was the subject of two more films, the contemporaneous HITLER'S MADMAN [1943] and OPERATION DAYBREAK [1975]) - and is further elevated by the contribution of two important figures of pre-war German art, director Lang and writer Bertolt Brecht.

It also features a great cast (mostly delivering excellent performances, but is saddled with a miscast and rather stiff Brian Donlevy in the lead): Walter Brennan and Gene Lockhart are featured in overly familiar roles but their contribution is, as ever, reliable and entirely welcome; best of all, perhaps, are Anna Lee and Alexander Granach; beloved character actor Dwight Frye (most familiar to horror-film buffs) appears here in one of his last roles but, as was generally the case, is regrettably given only a couple of lines!

Long and heavy-going, with the propagandist element coming off as fairly corny now, but the film is held firmly together by Lang's fine direction and James Wong Howe's superb noir-ish lighting (the Region 1 DVD by Kino was eventually re-issued as part of a 5-Disc Noir set). It also involves a couple of scuffles which are quite tense and energetic (Granach's death scene is especially striking), while the last third resorts to the organized frame-up by the Czechs of a traitor in their midst (collaborationist Lockhart) - which, in itself, is no less frightening an act than the heinous persecution of the Nazi regime!

I'm confused, however, about the film's running-time: the print I watched ran for 129 minutes in PAL mode (which would bring it to about 134 minutes when converted to NTSC); even so, it contains the ending missing from the DVDs released in Regions 1 and 2 which, being the same version i.e. cut and having the same length (134 minutes), would indicate that the Kino edition is a PAL conversion - which means a full running-time of 139 minutes (a minute short of the 'official' length, as per Lotte Eisner's book on Lang)! To make matters worse, both the Leslie Halliwell and Leonard Maltin film guides I own cite HANGMEN ALSO DIE! as being 131 minutes long!!