jacobs-greenwood
This World War II propaganda thriller featuring a better than average plot and tolerable jingoism was co-produced and directed by Fritz Lang, who also co-wrote its story (with Bertolt Brecht) that was adapted by John Wexley. Set in occupied Czechoslovakia, the drama begins with the (unseen) assassination of the ruling Nazi official, German officer Reinhard Heydrich (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), known to the Czech people as "the hangman" for his brutal tactics during Germany's occupation of their country. The Czechs were unified in their resistance against these occupying forces; their work was intentionally slow and they refused to snitch on each other for acts that hindered their oppressors. Hence, when the assassin (Brian Donlevy) is escaping, he's assisted by Nasha Novotny (Anna Lee), who directs the pursuing Germans in the opposite direction. However, the extreme actions which the unrelenting Nazis take to ferret out the assassin begin to make some Czechs question their devotion to the cause. Nasha is among the first because her father, Professor Stephen Novotny (Walter Brennan), is imprisoned along with hundreds of others marked for execution unless the assassin is revealed and captured.The Nazis are assisted by a traitor, Emil Czaka (Gene Lockhart), a brewer who lines his pockets while helping the Germans with their strategies and in capturing or killing members of the underground (like Byron Foulger's character). Gestapo Inspectors Gruber (Alexander Granach) and Ritter (Reinhold Schünzel) focus their attention and pressure on Nasha, who'd mistakenly brought herself and her family to their attention when she had a momentary lapse in patriotism. She deduces that the assassin is not an architect named Karel Vanek, as he'd first introduced himself, but is actually a surgeon, Dr. Franticek Svoboda. But after Nasha witnesses the brave resistance of others that she knows (e.g. a grocer played by Sarah Padden), she helps Svoboda to use her initial almost betrayal against Gruber and Ritter to ensnare Czaka. Her assistance in this effort is complicated by her fiancé (Dennis O'Keefe) Jan Horak's misunderstanding of the situation, but Jan eventually figures out Nasha's participation and joins the fight.This dramatic film's Score was nominated for an Academy Award, its Sound Recording was also Oscar nominated. Nana Bryant, Margaret Wycherly, Tonio Selwart, and Lionel Stander are among the other credited actors in the cast.
Robert J. Maxwell
If you're going to enjoy this, you'd better clear your mind of any knowledge you might hold of the assassination of Heydrich in occupied Czechoslovakia. Treat this as a fictional tale about a fictional hunt for a fictional assassin in Prague.The historical facts are too depressing anyway. Heydrich was murdered by two guys. The Nazis tortured Czechs until one of them squealed. Then they tracked the assassins to a church and the two killers committed suicide. The Nazis then destroyed a village that had nothing to do with political events. See "Operation: Daybreak."Here, we have Brian Donlevy as a doctor in Prague who shoots Heydrich. He then has to seek immediate shelter in the house of strangers, in this case, the home of Professor Walter Brennan and his family, including daughter Anna Lee.The Gestapo are understandably upset and they organize a manhunt for the killer, which centers around Donlevy and around the family that sheltered him. The Nazis round up and execute Czechs at random but nobody talks. And, in the end, the underground frames a Nazi agent for the crime.The Nazis aren't shown as stupid brutes. Alexander Granach, the Gestapo Inspector, is positively clever in a swinish, almost comic way. Fritz Lang has him with a haircut that the punk rockers of the 80s would have envied. His military mustache curls up at the ends, as in a morale-boosting poster left over from World War I and his plump neck hangs over his collar. His gestures are operatic, his perceptions acute, his consumption of beer heroic.Not far behind, if in fact he's behind at all, is Reinhold Schünzel as the uniformed Gestapo officer. He smiles pleasantly, leaning back and tripling his chin, while describing the torture that a suspect is about to undergo, but in an avuncular way, as if about to buy a child an ice cream cone. While the victim stands shivering, Schünzel grins, swivels in his office chair, and cracks his knuckles one by one.Less of an actor but more of a straight figure is Tonio Selwart as the Chief of the Gestapo. Less of a caricature, more of a character. He doesn't smile or squint. He speaks quietly and with sweet reason. And he wears those great uniforms with riding breeches and boots, and he wears a monocle, and Fritz Lang shows us Selwart peering into a mirror and squeezing a zit on his cheek.The good guys are much less interesting. Brian Donlevy is referred to as a young man but he's a little old for that. I mean, the guy was in Mexico with General Pershing in pursuit of Panch Villa, wasn't he? And anyway, he's practically ligneous. If his expression ever changed, I missed it, and he walks with his chest thrown out like a pigeon's. Dennis O'Keefe, in a minor part, is harmless as always. Walter Brennan, toothless old Walter Brennan, comic sidekick, does rather well by the role of a professor of history, and Anna Lee as his daughter is cute as hell. Slender, wide-eyed, shivering with fright. I love her. The problem is that all the good guys stand around spraying patriotic clichés just as a lawn sprinkler sprays water.No, it's not Fritz Lang's best picture but neither is it is worst. The script credit goes to Berthold Brecht but I understand he didn't contribute much. Still, I'm glad he was in Hollywood instead of (gulp) elsewhere. His songs for the comedy "Where Do We Go From Here?" are memorable. Lang was a popular director in Germany and was asked by Goebbels to head the movie propaganda program of the Third Reich. As he describes it, he replied, "I'm tickled pink," and was on the next airplane out of Berlin. He brings some of his expressionism and originality with him. The dark, deep, dramatic shadows of films like "Ministry of Fear" are already adumbrated, so to speak.And he does something that should earn him a medal. Lang was fond of using mirrors in his films for some reason. (Check out "Woman in the Window.") Here, he has Granach run to a mirror to inspect some smeared lipstick on his cheeks. And -- guess what -- Granach looks AT HIS OWN REFLECTION and not at the camera lens. When the actor looks at the audience instead of himself, it's a jarring estrangement for the viewer, who is hit over the head with the realization that this is not just a movie, but a clumsily directed one, an insulting one, at that.You know, considering that so many of the cast were born in Germany, you have to wonder just how often directions were given in English. Lang was quite an authoritarian. I can see him now, strutting about with his boots, riding breeches, and monocle, bellowing orders through a bullhorn.
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")
