Rent Hangmen Also Die! (1943)

Fascinating Propaganda Film by Fritz Lang made in 1942 about Heydrich Assassination May 1942 - Hangmen Also Die! review by PV

This is a fascinating if flawed film. Made during the war and shortly after the actual assassination of the hangman of Prague Heydrich, it is clearly propaganda for the war - it was shot in 1942, released in 1943.

Could be compared to the wonderful WENT THE DAY WELL made the same year, the first ever film based on a Graham Greene short story, to mention a Nazi invasion (lots of speculative novels and films since).

In reality Heydrich was not shot but died a week after a grenade exploded under his car in Prague. SO watch the extra here, a German professor with wonderful English explaining the history and context for half an hour.

Fritz Lang made classics like Metropolis (1927) silent film and the brilliant 'M' which made the German actor Peter Lorre a star - great films both.

Of course, there are many cartoon characters here, caricatures of Nazis, partly because it is anti-Nazi propaganda and partly because many silent film stars and directors did that - see Chaplin.ls the Great Dictator. That care get tiresome these days.

Some classic shadows and angles of Lang's German Expressionism too, making Nazis characters seem sinister just from shadows.

I am sure Mel Brooks was influenced by this to make THE PRODUCERS (original title Springtime for Hitler) - the OTT caricatures for one, but also the music, the song at the end - reminds me so much of HERE'S HITLER in that musical!

A great watch, esp for war film fans, maybe a tad long but 3.5 stars rounded up.

Historical Fiction. - Hangmen Also Die! review by Steve

Long, cumbersome propaganda excercise inspired by the audacious assassination the previous year in Prague of Reinhard Heydrich- the author of the Final Solution- and the horrific Nazi retribution which followed. Aside from this outline, the rest is fiction as very little else was known to the public.

Brian Donlevy portrays the lone assassin, which indicates some really bizarre casting, including Walter Brennan as a Czech intellectual. German refugees in Hollywood play the Nazis, with Alexander Granach most effective as a Gestapo goon. It works well when styled as a thriller, with an exciting opening and a suspenseful climax.

And the set design is imposing. The problem is that Fritz Lang (with assistance from Bertolt Brecht) overburdens the film with propaganda and a lengthy tribute to the Resistance movement. Some of this is expected, but eventually the plot is abandoned to freedom songs and an excess of editorialising and rousing patriotic oration.

Astonishingly, the censors actually wouldn't pass the final cut because... the assassin going free contravened the Production Code! The story was also made the same year as Hitler's Madman, and many times since, with greater historical accuracy. This version needed a producer to counter the director's overindulgence. But Lang was the producer.