evanston_dad I was drawn to "Hangmen Also Die" for two reasons: 1. It's directed by Fritz Lang and 2. I thought it was a film noir. Well it's not remotely noirish, so anyone else who's intrigued by it for the same reason beware. It's an old school bit of pro-Allies WWII propaganda, and a pretty good one at that. The film is about a man hunt led by the Nazis to find the assassin of a high-ranking German official in an occupied Czech village. Brian Donlevy is the man they're looking for, and all sorts of Czechs suffer at the hands of the Nazis because the villagers collectively refuse to cooperate and turn Donlevy over to the authorities. The movie is a rallying cry for standing up to oppression and not giving into bullies, because once you do you've given them control over you.The plot is a bit convoluted, and there's a lot of it. The film clocks in at a meaty 130 minutes or so, long by the standards of the time and especially for a film like this. But I appreciated its grimness and its willingness to show some of the horrors of the conflict to its audience at the time the conflict was actually occurring. Gene Lockhart is despicable as a Nazi informer while Walter Brennan is marvelous (wasn't he always?) as a heroic academic. "Hangmen Also Die" received two Oscar nominations in 1943, one for its score by Hans Eisler and the other for its sound recording. Neither is especially remarkable, but those were the days when a whole slew of movies were nominated in those categories because of different Academy rules.Grade: A-

rooee "Die if you must for a cause that is just." It's a line from a poem which becomes a song of defiance, written by a Czech civilian taken hostage by and awaiting execution at the hands of the Nazis. It's also the core mantra for many of the Resistance heroes who face death for the sake of the greater national good. The plot of Fritz Lang's film, adapted from a story by Bertolt "Bert" Brecht and loosely based on real events, concerns the assassination of the "Hangman of Europe" Reinhard Heydrich (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) in occupied Prague. Naturally the Gestapo are all over the case, but their efforts to nail the assassin are thwarted at every turn by Resistance sympathisers – many of them ordinary folk turned potential betrayers. The chief inspector is Gruber (Alexander Granach), a bawdy, beer- swilling cop with a nose for sniffing out lies. But the prime suspect, Svoboda (Brian Donlevy), is his intellectual equal, casting a web of deceit that entangles innocent witness Mascha (Anna Lee), whose father is subsequently captured and used as leverage. Mascha's dilemma is a Sophie's Choice that encapsulates the terrible decision at the heart of all citizens living under oppression: Speak out and her family will be shot; say nothing and only her father dies. Hangmen Also Die! was made after Lang's emigration from Nazi Germany in the 1930s and before his move into hard noir with Scarlet Street and The Big Heat. It was produced during wartime yet somehow avoids many of the demonising clichés that could potentially turn depictions of the Third Reich into a pantomime of evil (even if some of the performances are a tad broad). The precision and nuance by which such a complex array of characters is mapped out is remarkable – the stuff of AAA television in our current era. Lang and his co-writers somehow make it all work, with virtually every scene a nail-biting moral or ethical decision, or some devastating revelation. It's the leanness of the narrative, with every word and frame employed to maximum effect, that makes this level of intensity possible. Special mention should go to the great female roles here, from factory workers to fruit sellers, all taking their punishment for their part in the Resistance effort. Mascha in particular could have been a hysterical wuss, but she's as calm, capable, and principled as the men plotting each other's doom. She never asked for this – yet she's the one making the sacrifice regardless.The mix of political intrigue, melodrama, and hard-boiled noir may not sit comfortably in many minds but on screen it's a masterful balancing act. Just as with M, Lang dares to paint his subjects in shades of grey (the Resistance fighters are no more pure of heart than the Gestapo police are pure evil), and the results are utterly engrossing and grimly plausible. If you've seen Lang's big-hitters, it's time to try out this lesser-known little classic.

gavin6942 During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, surgeon Dr. Franticek Svoboda (Brian Donlevy), a Czech patriot, assassinates the brutal "Hangman of Europe", Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), and is wounded in the process. In his attempt to escape, he is helped by history professor Stephen Novotny (Walter Brennan), who is himself under suspicion by the Nazis, and his daughter Mascha (Anna Lee).I am sad that Dwight Frye has such a small (uncredited) role, and I am sad that this film was banned by the McCarthy era politicians. That just shows how crazy they were. Why would they ban a film that stands up against Hitler and contains an awesome punch through a window? The film portrays Nazis in the stereotype that we expect of them today. Yet, this was still 1943... so this film deserves credit for influencing how we view the Nazi regime, and also for being based on a true story in the middle of a war rather than after the fact. (Had the outcome of the war gone differently, this film would have been quite the problem.)

Claudio Carvalho On 27 May 1942, in Prague, the Deputy Reich-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia "Hangman" Reinhard Heydrich is shot by the resistance member Dr. Franticek Svoboda (Brian Donlevy). After the attempt on Heydrich's life, Nasha Novotny (Anna Lee) gives the wrong runaway direction of Svoboda to the Gestapo agents. When Svoboda sees that he is trapped, he goes to Nasha's apartment seeking shelter and he introduces himself as the architect Karel Vanek. He is welcomed by the patriarch and former revolutionary Professor Stephen Novotny (Walter Brennan) and he spends the night with the family. On the next morning, the Gestapo captures hostages including Professor Novotny to force the population to denounce the assassin. Nasha goes to the St. Pancracio Hospital to seek out the resident surgeon Dr. Franticek Svoboda and ask him to surrender to the German authorities to protect the hostages. But sooner she learns that the occupation police has no intentions to let the prisoner go and she helps the resistance in the plan to frame the traitor Emil Czaka (Gene Lockhart). "Hangmen Also Die!" is a flawed but entertaining war propaganda film based on a true event, the murder of "Hangman" Reinhard Heydrich. The fictional plot of fight for freedom is engaging and it is interesting since it was filmed in 1943, before the end of the war. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Os Carrascos Também Morrem" ("The Hangmen Also Die")