Hangmen Also Die! [Blu-ray]

Director: Fritz Lang Fritz Lang

Overview

This film is set in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation. Czech loyalist Brian Donlevy assassinates the vicious Gestapo leader Heydrich, then goes into hiding. Fifth columnist Gene Lockhart arranges for 400 Prague citizens to be rounded up as hostages, to be killed if Heydrich's assassin is not revealed.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/09/2014
UPC:	0741952739999
Original Release:	1943
Source:	Cohen Media Group
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	2:15:00

Special Features

New 30 minute featurette with historian and author Robert Gerwarth; Illustrated essay by Professor Peter Ellenbruch, University of Duisberg-Essen, Germany; Feature-length audio commentary by Richard Peña; Restoration before and after comparison; 2014 re-release trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Brian Donlevy	Dr. Franticek Svoboda / Karel Vanek
Anna Lee	Nasha Novotny
Walter Brennan	Prof. Novotny
Gene Lockhart	Emil Czaka
Dennis O'Keefe	Jan Horek
Alexander Granach	Alois Gruber
Margaret Wycherly	Aunt Ludmilla Novotny
Nana Bryant	Mrs. Novotny
Billy Roy	Beda Novotny
Hans von Twardowski	Reinhard Heydrich,Reinhard Heydrich
Tonio Selwart	Haas, Gestapo Chief
Jonathan Hale	Dedic
Lionel Stander	Gabby
Byron Foulger	Bartos
Virginia Farmer	Landlady
Ludwig Donath	Schirmer
Sarah Padden	Mrs. Dvorak
Edmund MacDonald	Dr. Pilar
George Irving	Necval the Poet
James Bush	Worker
Arno Frey	Itnut, Camp Officer
Lester Sharpe	Rudy, a Hostage
Arthur Loft	Gen. Votruba Bertruba
William Farnum	Viktorin
Reinhold Schunzel	Inspector Ritter
Otto Reichow	Gestapo
Eddy Waller	Cab Driver
Philip Van Zandt	Officer
Erville Alderson	Liberal Official
Ralph Dunn	Policeman
Charles Middleton	Actor,Patriot
Emmett Lynn	Hostage
Emmett Vogan	Hostage
Billy Benedict	Hostage
William Haade	Patriot
Philip Merivale	Policeman
Dwight Frye	Actor
Hanns Eisler	Composer

Technical Credits

Fritz Lang	Producer,Director
Fred Lau	Sound/Sound Designer
Jack Whitney	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Fritz Lang's only collaboration with his friend and fellow German émigré, the playwright Bertolt Brecht (who later disowned it), tells the story of a group of Czech resistance fighters during World War II: ordinary citizens who band together to harbor the film's hero, Dr. Svoboda (Brian Donlevy), who is involved in the assassination of a Nazi officer. One can understand why the uncompromising Brecht would be disappointed in the result, which smoothes over his radical ideas in an attempt to make a commercially viable picture. The clichéd Nazi villains come across as broad caricatures -- one of them even sports a monocle and utters the line "we have ways of making you talk" -- and the heroic villagers tend to be equally indistinguishable in their stoic wholesomeness. But despite these concessions to what was believed to be popular taste, Lang still manages to convey the very real cruelty of the Nazis, and works in some brilliant suspense sequences. Worth it for master cinematographer James Wong Howe's gorgeously detailed chiaroscuro images alone, Hangmen Also Die also includes one of Lang's most beautifully designed set pieces: the murder of a Nazi officer that plays out in the eerie silence of an empty hospital locker room, and ends with the chilling image of a bowler hat lazily rolling across the floor.