Simply A Masterpiece

Nice effects though.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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.

Hang man also die! is an excellent war period movie. It however does not show war as such, but portrays a very believable account of the lives of a populace living under an occupational, dictatorial and brutal regime. The film narrates the frustration, the anger and the yearning for freedom of the Czech people, living a subjugated life under the German army. The screenplay is very tightly woven; there were almost no dull moment during the nearly two and a half hour duration of the movie. However, the film lacks a multi-layered plot and varied shades of the characters in it. The plot is too linear; it is throughout the same story of good versus evil, where the distinction between good and evil is clearly drawn out. Consequently, the charterers are also portrayed in black and white- Germans always as evil, sinister characters, and, the Czech characters are just the opposite to them. Although there were moments where, briefly, some other shades were glimpsed upon, for example, when the protagonist doubted whether he should hand over himself to Gestapo, in order to save the execution of the innocents, and, when the lead female character is torn between love for her country and concern for her father's life. However, these moments remain as glimpses only- Lang does not develop them further. In the end, the film merely tells a story of a fight between good and evil, and it does that very well. However, a too linear narrative structure, and, black and white characterization stops the movie from achieving the heights, achieved by, for example, Rossellini's war trilogy, or, Battle of Algiers.

Hangmen Also Die! (1943) *** (out of 4) Based on the true story of the assassination of Nazi Reinard Heydrich, known to many as the "Hangman." Lang's story focuses on the aftermath of the events and the terror that the Nazi party much on the Czech people while trying to find the real assassin (Brian Donlevy). Lang's film was released the same year as the similar themed HITLER'S MADMAN but there's no question that this is the better of the two, although I still walked away somewhat disappointed. For the most part this film is a success but there's no denying that it has some major problems in its story as well as a few actors who are really miscast. The biggest problem in the cast is Walter Brennan who never seems very comfortable in his role as a Professor who finds himself being held by the Nazi party because they believe he knows the identity of the assassin. Donlevy makes for a solid lead, although at times one thinks he's way too stiff for the part. I think the sternness actually works in his favor but there are times where you'll wish he'd loosen up just a bit. I also wasn't too impressed with Anna Lee as I felt she underplayed several scenes here including a really bad one early on when she tries to tell her father that she thinks she knows who the assassin is. Gene Lockhart, on the other hands, steals the film in each scene that he's in. He certainly plays the type of villain that people will want to hiss out and he's perfect in each scene. This is especially true towards the end when he becomes the main suspect after years of helping the Nazi party. Horror fans will want to spot Dwight Frye in one brief scene. What makes the film worth sitting through is the actual story itself. The assassination and the following events are a fascinating case and for the most part Lang shows this quite well. His direction is top-notch from the very beginning and I thought he did a remarkable job as the tension starts to build on all the characters involved. The final twenty-minutes feature some very tense moments and they're also quite claustrophobic as the noose starts to get more and more tight. Another major plus is that the film never slows down as the longer running time actually goes by pretty fast without feeling overlong. I think some of the stuff could have been cut out including the entire bit with Lee and her relationship with her fiancé (Dennis O'Keefe) who thinks she's having an affair. I would have liked this to have been cut out with perhaps more attention spent to the actual assassination. With that said, even though one would wish for a masterpiece, we at least get an entertaining film that manages to keep us in suspense as everything begins to come out. This is certainly far from a great movie but there's enough here to make it worth viewing.

***SPOILERS*** Somehwhat fictionalized account of the assassination of the Nazi installed Reichsprotector of Bohemia/Moravia SS Obergruppen-Fuhrer Reinhard Heydrick, Hans Henrich Von Twardowski, who was known "affecfinotly" by his subjects, the Czech people, as the notorious "Hangman" Heydrich.Even though he's the major subject of the film we only get to see the "Hangman" once at the very beginning of the movie and what an impression he makes in the few minutes of screen time he has in it! Swaggering around like an obnoxious buffoon Heydrich comes across as someone you wouldn't trust in getting you a container of coffee and buttered roll for breakfast much less running a country- Czechoslovakia-of some 10 million people. It's not that long after being introduced to this shrieking lunatic that he's reported to have been shot by Czech patriots while driving through the streets of Prague in his Mercedes. Trying to flee the scene of the shooting is Heydrich's assassin Czech freedom fighter Dr. Franticek Svoboda, which incidentally means "freedom" in Czech, played by Irish/American actor Brain Donlevey who then makes his way into the nearby Novotny residence to avoid capture. Using the alias of architect Kanel Vanek Dr. Svoboda stays with the Novotny's until the curfew, imposed by the Nazis after the Heydrich assassination, is lifted.We also get to see defiant Pargue Taxi driver Banya, Lionel Stander, who helped Svoboda make his successful getaway getting arrested and later tortured by the Gestapo only to escape by jumping through a shut window in Gestapo headquarters never to be seen or heard from again in the film! It's as if the Gestapo felt it wasn't worth looking for him or else the slippery as an eel Banya somehow made it back to England, where the real life assassins of the "Hangman" came from, and freedom! The rest of the movie has the Nazis out on a rampage arresting jailing and executing Czech's, innocent of the "Hangman's" assassination, by the hundreds until his killer, Dr. Svoboda, gives himself up to them!Pretty accurate account of the Heydrich assassination and its aftermath that tries to be even handed in just how non active most Czech's were in fighting the hated Germans who were occupying their country. We get to see the Czech's slowly start to revolt against the Germans only after they started to indiscriminately arrest torture and execute hundreds of their fellow countrymen for a crime that they, those arrested , didn't commit: The assassination of "Hangman" Reinhard Heydrich! In fact the person who did it-Dr. Svoboda-seem to be totally immune from arrest and tortured by the Gestapo even though they had far more on him then anyone else in their custody!It was the person who helped Dr. Svoboda hide from the Nazis Nasha Novotny, Ann Lee, who was more then willing to turn him over to the Gestapo in that he by being hidden by them put her entire families, headed by her dad Prof. Steve Novotny (Walter Brennan),lives in jeopardy. It's later that Nasha sees the light after almost being lynched by her fellow Czechs, when she tried to go to Gestapo headquarters to report Dr. Svoboda, and actively joins the fight for her country's freedom against the hated Nazis.***SPOILERS*** There's also an interesting side story in the film that has really nothing to do with the dear departed "Hangman" Heydrich that involves Czech traitor Emil Czaka, Gene Lockhart. Czaka had been the Gestapo's inside man in the Czech resistance movement providing them with all the information they needed in who its members are. It was both Dr. Sovboda and Nasha together with her fiancée Jon Horak, Dennis O'Keefe, and dozens of fellow Czech patriots who set the traitorous Czaka up in being the man who whacked "Hangman" Heydrich by manufacturing an air-tight case against him! To finally convince the Gestapo that in fact Czaka did it, assassinate the "Hangman", the only witness who could have saved his rotten neck Gestapo Inspector Alois Gruber, Alexander Granach, not only ended up getting killed, suffocated to death by both Dr. Sovboda & Jan Horak, but his murder was linked to the very man he could have proved innocent of being Heydrch assassin: Emil Czaka!