Hangmen Also Die! (1943)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Bertolt Brecht (adaptation) (original story) and
Fritz Lang (adaptation) (original story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

15 April 1943 (USA)

Genre:

War | Drama

Tagline:

The shot heard 'round the world!

Plot:

On May 27, 1942 the Nazi Reichsprotector of Bohemia/Moravia, the "Hangman" Reinhard Heydrich, died from...

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | Assassination | Resistance | Traitor | Hostage

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Hans Heinrich von Twardowski	...	Reinhard Heydrich
Brian Donlevy	...	Dr. Franticek Svoboda aka Karel Vanek
Walter Brennan	...	Prof. Stephen Novotny
Anna Lee	...	Nasha Novotny
Nana Bryant	...	Mrs. Hellie Novotny
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
Arno Frey	...	Camp lieutenant
Sarah Padden	...	Mrs. Georgia Dvorak (grocer)
Jonathan Hale	...	Dedic
Byron Foulger	...	Bartos
Edmund MacDonald	...	Dr. Pillar
Lionel Stander	...	Banya (taxi driver)
Lester Sharpe	...	Rudy (waiter)
Arthur Loft	...	Gen. Votruba (hostage)
George Irving	...	Neeval (hostage)
James Bush	...	Pescacek (hostage)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Abbott	...	Hostage (scenes deleted)
Louis V. Arco	...	Nazi Official
Frederic Brunn	...	SS Officer
Fred Essler	...	Dr. Kesselbach
John Piffle	...	Industrialist
Albin Robeling	...	Clerk
William Roy	...	Boda Novotny (as Billy Roy)
Walter Thiele	...	Police Official
Erville Alderson	...	Liberal official (uncredited)
Richard Alexander	...	Slugger in theater (uncredited)
Florence Auer	...	Czech patriot (uncredited)
William 'Billy' Benedict	...	Kylar (clerk, hostage) (uncredited)
Lane Bradford	...	Gestapo officer (uncredited)
Harry C. Bradley	...	Townsman (uncredited)
James Dime	...	Gestapo detective (uncredited)
Lester Dorr	...	Aldrich Krapke (patriot at meeting) (uncredited)
Ralph Dunn	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Poldi Dur	...	Slugger's girlfriend in theater) (uncredited)
Edward Earle	...	Professor (uncredited)
Virginia Farmer	...	Mrs. Nimitz (landlady) (uncredited)
William Farnum	...	Viktorin (patriot) (uncredited)
Dwight Frye	...	Hostage (uncredited)
William Haade	...	Patriot (uncredited)
Sam Harris	...	Extra at briefing (uncredited)
Eddie Kane	...	Novak (head waiter at The Golden Quail) (uncredited)
Fred Kohler Jr.	...	Czech patriot (uncredited)
Kurt Kreuger	...	Gestapo officer (uncredited)
Hope Landin	...	Czech patriot (uncredited)
Emmett Lynn	...	Gerta (hostage) (uncredited)
Robert Malcolm	...	Czech patriot (uncredited)
Paul McVey	...	Jan Pestuca (newspaper editor) (uncredited)
Philip Merivale	...	Bit part (uncredited)
Charles Middleton	...	Patriot at meeting with Svoboda (uncredited)
Frances Morris	...	Dr. Svoboda's nurse (uncredited)
Kurt Neumann	...	SS Man (uncredited)
Manuel París	...	Townsman on Street (uncredited)
Lucien Prival	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Frank Reicher	...	Interpreter (uncredited)
Otto Reichow	...	Gestapo agent (uncredited)
Ernest Roberts	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Henry Roquemore	...	Patriot at meeting (uncredited)
Janet Shaw	...	Katerina Honiga (patriotic factory secretary) (uncredited)
Robert R. Stephenson	...	Nazi Guard in Visitors Pen (uncredited)
Philip Van Zandt	...	Officer (uncredited)
Lucio Villegas	...	Townsman at Briefing (uncredited)
Emmett Vogan	...	Hostage wearing glasses (uncredited)
Eddy Waller	...	Hansom cab driver (uncredited)
Crane Whitley	...	Gestapo officer (uncredited)
Harry Wilson	...	Ugly German bodyguard (uncredited)

Directed by
Fritz Lang

Writing credits
Bertolt Brecht		(adaptation) (original story) (as Bert Brecht) and
Fritz Lang		(adaptation) (original story)
John Wexley		(screenplay)

Produced by
Theo. W. Baumfeld	....	assistant producer (as T.W. Baumfeld)
Fritz Lang	....	producer
Arnold Pressburger	....	producer

Original Music by
Hanns Eisler

Cinematography by
James Wong Howe

Film Editing by
Gene Fowler Jr.

Art Direction by
William S. Darling

Makeup Department
Robert Stephanoff	....	makeup artist (as Blagoe Stephanoff)

Production Management
Carley Harriman	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Walter Mayo	....	assistant director
Fred Pressburger	....	assistant director

Art Department
Julia Heron	....	set dresser

Sound Department
Fred Lau	....	sound
Jack Whitney	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Ned Scott	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Eleanor Behm	....	dresses: Miss Lee

Music Department
Artur Guttmann	....	conductor
Artur Guttmann	....	orchestrator

Other crew
Max Pretzfelder	....	technical advisor

Production Companies

• Arnold Pressburger Films (as Arnold Productions Inc.)

Distributors

• United Artists (1943) (USA) (theatrical)
• Favorite Films (1947) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Les Films Roger Richebé (France) (theatrical)
• DVDY Films (France) (DVD)
• Kino Video (video)
• Spiegel Media GmbH
• e-m-s the DVD-Company (2006) (Germany) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Hangmen Also Die! (UK)
Lest We Forget
Never Surrender (USA) (working title)
No Surrender (USA) (working title)
Trust the People (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

USA:134 min (Turner library print) | France:117 min (DVD)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) (2005) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved | Spain:13 | Sweden:15

Company:

Arnold Pressburger Films

Trivia:

The original titles for the project were "No Surrender" and "Never Surrender" They had to choose a new title because a book was published with a similar title during production. Producers held a contest among the cast and crew to choose a new title. A production secretary submitted the winning title and won $100.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The character of Reinhard Heydrich wears the collar tabs of an SS-Gruppenfuehrer (group leader, roughly lieutenant general), three oak leaves. As Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia his rank was higher, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer (higher group leader, roughly full general). The proper insignia for this rank in 1942 was three oak leaves with a single pip underneath.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Le mépris (1963)

Soundtrack:

Vltava

A Devastating Blow Against the Nazi War Machine

Made at the height of WWII not long after the events upon which it is based took place, "Hangmen Also Die" is a testament to the patriotic spirit of the Czechoslovakian people under the most dire conditions imaginable. After the Nazis have invaded and conquered the country, a brave resistance fighter assassinates the brutal leader of the German occupation forces, SS leader Reinhard Heydrich, who, like Klaus Barbie, was a ruthless butcher of the innocent. Heydrich subjugated the Czech people by murdering, torturing and enslaving hordes of non-combatant civilians.

Just before the Nazi tyrant is shot, he threatens to end a factory slowdown by the murder of hundreds of Czech workers. It is this threat that precipitates the assassination. The desperate killer of Heydrich, member of an underground Czech resistance group, narrowly escapes capture with the assistance of civilians who suffer the consequences immediately afterwards when many are taken hostage by the Nazis, with the threat of imminent death hanging over their heads if the assassin is not turned over to the Gestapo.

At the center of the tense drama is Nasha Novotny, flawlessly played by Anna Lee, as the daughter of a distinguished university professor and patriot, portrayed by character actor Walter Brennan. Nasha is instrumental in aiding Brian Donlevy (as Dr. Svoboda, the assassin with ice water in his veins) to escape his bloodthirsty Gestapo pursuers. But when Nasha's own father is picked up by the Gestapo, she is forced to question her loyalty to the resistance, begins to regard the man she has saved as a deadly threat to her family and nearly turns traitor to save her father's life. Expatriate German director Fritz Lang and his scenarists show great sympathy in portraying this all too human failing. In a few simple touches they go far beyond stereotype in showing how the recalcitrant patriot overcomes her strong personal misgivings to rejoin the heroic struggle against the Nazis.

"Hangmen" is not a movie for the mechanically minded. Its craft is the art of understatement. Many of the events dramatically most important to the story -- such as the assassination -- are not depicted or happen off-screen. Whole sections of the plot line are there only by inference. This is particularly true at the end of the film, when the entire conspiracy to frame up an enemy collaborator is only hinted at before it is sprung as a surprise upon the audience, as on the unwitting villain. How did the underground resistance fighters arrange to fabricate so deadly a case against a traitor? We can only guess, but may hardly object to the ironic way in which the informant meets his end.

Fritz Lang has a well known reputation as a leader of the noir school of film maker. Yet, in spite of its horrifying premise, the movie is neither bleak nor pessimistic but a straightforward affirmation of the struggle against tyranny. Unlike many of his less gifted followers, Lang is no mere stylist but is just as much concerned with the historic and moral significance of his story as the artful way in which he presents it. To those who might object that the Nazis are portrayed as stereotyped bad men, the answer is that the Nazis were precisely what the film shows them to be: ugly brutish travesties of human beings. And who would know that better than Fritz Lang and his excellent scenarist Bertolt Brecht? Both of them had lived in Germany under the Nazis and escaped to the United States to strike a devastating propaganda blow against the enemy.