Hangmen Also Die (1943)
Prague, May 1942. After the murder of Reichsprotektor of Bohemia-Moravia, Heydrich, nicknamed "The Executioner " at the hands of the Czech resistance, the Doctor Svoboda (Brian Donlevy), author of crime, tries desperately to escape the German police, eventually through the help of a stranger, Nasha Novotny (Anna Lee), who sends his pursuers in another direction. After a harrowing escape, Svoboda finally took refuge at the home of the Novotny family under a false name. While the Gestapo, the inspector smart Alois Gruber (Granacher Alexander) at the top, look for all of Prague to the murder, the occupation forces began to take hostages among the population of the city, including the father of Nasha, threatening to shoot them if it is not responsible for the death of Heydrich.
In 1933 Joseph Goebbels, the Reich propaganda minister, proposed to Fritz Lang, director of the legendary Metropolis , chairing the studies of the UFA, the German state producer. Lang's response, whose ideas were radically opposed to Nazism, Germany was abruptly flee, first to France, and finally bound for America, arriving in 1936, beginning on American soil the second phase of his film career. In this case, Hangmen Also Die marked the seventh feature film made by Lang in Hollywood, leading to an apocryphal story screen based on the death of Reinhard Heydrich Reichsprotektor , mortally wounded in Prague on May 27, 1942, after an attack carried out by Secret Service agents Czechs British. Since details of the assassination of Heydrich not known when the film was shot, Lang took as its starting point the same to build a fictional story that honor Nazi resistance in Europe. The screenplay was written by a German immigrant, the famous playwright Brecht Berltolt , along with screenwriter John Wexley , which represented the only Brecht collaboration accredited in a Hollywood film.
Hangmen Also Die can be considered one of the best anti-Nazi films produced during the war. Lang's hand is noticeable from the first minute (attention to the sequence that opens the film, with an absolutely menacing Heydrich addressing an audience of personalities) and manages to give the story a disturbing and oppressive atmosphere, built around characters moving on the edge of the knife. In addition, Lang gets to go well beyond the mere vehicle of propaganda, and instead, offers a typical story that combines elements of black cinema, police thriller, and denouncing politics. The film also is all a plea for individual freedom and a heartfelt campaign of the dignity of the people against their oppressors and injustice. This narrated on screen with the indisputable visual Lang label, with the use of plans and approaches that show the director of the Austrian expressionist roots. By putting a "but" perhaps it might be noted the relatively contrived about acquiring the plot when partisans try to involve in the murder Czako traitor, an aspect of the plot that did not seem very credible, but fits well in the subsequent outcome of the transaction.
Paragraph interpretive stand above all the actions of Alexander Granacher , embodying the cunning and clever Gestapo inspector Gruber, (in my opinion, the best character in the movie) and Gene Lockhart that gives life to beer Czako employer, the traitor of the resistance.
In short, Hangmen Also Die is a very valuable film in the filmography of the great Fritz Lang. Without being a masterpiece, nor one of the most outstanding work of its director, it is one of those titles whose visual and narrative mastery make the transition from years may not apply and can be enjoyed by viewers of any age. Definitely a highly recommended film.
Rating: 7 / 10
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