HANGMEN ALSO DIE (DVD/1943/B&W) DVD

Hangmen Also Die!
Hangmen Also Die is set in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation. Czech loyalist Brian Donlevy assassinates the vicious Gestapo leader Heydrich, then goes into hiding. The wounded patriot is sheltered by history professor Walter Brennan, who is already under surveillance by the Nazis thanks to his veiled classroom attacks on the Third Reich. Fifth columnist Gene Lockhart arranges for the professor and 400 other Prague citizens to be rounded up as hostages, to be killed if Heydrich's assassin is not revealed. Ultimately Lockhart himself is framed by the citizenry, giving the actor full scope to cringe and cower as only he could. Persuasively directed by Fritz Lang, Hangmen Also Die was based on a story by Lang and expatriate German playwright Bertold Brecht. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast Brian Donlevy as Dr. Franz Svoboda Walter Brennan as Prof. Stephan Novotny Anna Lee as Mascha Novotny Gene Lockhart as Emil Cruka Dennis O'Keefe as Jan Horek Alexander Granach as Alois Gruber Margaret Wycherly as Aunt Ludmilla Novotny Nana Bryant as Mrs. Novotny Billy Roy as Beda Novotny Tonio Selwart as Haas, Gestapo Chief Jonathan Hale as Dedic Lionel Stander as Taxi Driver Byron Foulger as Bartos Virginia Farmer as Landlady Ludwig Donath as Schirmer Sarah Padden as Mrs. Dvorak Edmund MacDonald as Dr. Pilar George Irving as Neeval James Bush as Peacock Arno Frey as Camp Lieutenant Lester Sharpe as Rudy, a Hostage Arthur Loft as Gen. Votruba Bertruba William Farnum as Viktorin

Crew William S. Darling - Art Director Eleanor Behm - Costume Designer Julia Heron - Costume Designer Walter Mayo - First Assistant Director Fritz Lang - Director Gene Fowler, Jr. - Editor Hanns Eisler - Composer (Music Score) Arthur Guttman - Musical Direction/Supervision Hanns Eisler - Songwriter Sam Coslow - Songwriter James Wong Howe - Cinematographer Arnold Pressburger - Producer Fritz Lang - Producer Julia Heron - Set Designer Fred Lau - Sound/Sound Designer Jack Whitney - Sound/Sound Designer John Wexley - Screenwriter Bertolt Brecht - Short Story Author

Hangmen Also Die!
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. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
 

Hanns Eisler: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Score - Drama or Comedy (nominated) Jack Whitney: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Sound (nominated)

General Specifications: Language Options: Subtitle Options: Sound Processing: 1: PCM mono Additional Features: none specified MPAA Rating: DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: All Content Length: 134 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 0. Chapters 1. Opening Titles [6:41] 2. The Hangman Is Shot [11:55] 3. An Uninvited Guest [10:15] 4. Interrogation [9:36] 5. Seeing Dr. Svoboda [10:14] 6. Gestapo Headquarters [9:13] 7. The Third Degree [9:39] 8. Underground [7:50] 9. Final Words [6:34] 10. A Trap for Czaka [8:35] 11. A Tryst of Fate [10:55] 12. Angels of Death [7:27] 13. Retribution [7:52] 14. Jan's Redemption [5:39] 15. Surgical Showdown [5:27] 16. A Traitor's Execution [6:04]