Hangmen Also Die! (1943)

Directed by

Fritz Lang

Genre

drama film, war film

Country

United States

Runtime

2h 10m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 140 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, a resistance fighter assassinates the brutal Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. He goes into hiding as the Gestapo cracks down on the local population, and a doctor and his family must decide whether to risk their lives to protect him.

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What happens

Hangmen Also Die! is a 1943 war film directed by the Austrian director Fritz Lang and written by John Wexley from a story by Bertolt Brecht (credited as Bert Brecht) and Lang. The film stars Brian Donlevy, with Walter Brennan, Anna Lee, and Gene Lockhart, and Dennis O'Keefe in support. Alexander Granach has a showy role as a Gestapo detective, and Hans Heinrich von Twardowski has a cameo as Reinhard Heydrich. Hanns Eisler composed the Academy Award nominated score, and James Wong Howe was cinematographer. The film is loosely based on the 1942 assassination of Heydrich, the Nazi Reich Protector of German-occupied Bohemia and Moravia during World War II. The number-two man in the SS, and a chief mastermind of the Holocaust, Heydrich earned the epithet of "The Hangman of Europe." Though the real Heydrich was assassinated by Czechoslovak soldiers parachuted from a British plane in Operation Anthropoid, this was not known at the time of filming. Instead, Heydrich's killer is depicted as a member of the Czech resistance with ties to the Communist Party. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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