Hangmen Also Die

A grim wartime political thriller based on the true story of a Reich official assassinated in Czechoslovakia. Based VERY loosely, however, as the events in the movie have little to do with reality. But this is really heavy-handed, black/white, good/evil stuff. The camerawork is sophisticated, the script is not. Still, it's a solid thriller that manages to be sufficiently gripping despite its lengthy running time. Lang pulls off some marvelous shots.

Sadly, this movie drags on about an hour and a half too long, leaving only about half an hour of interesting material. It's just plain boring and really does nothing to provide entertainment.

The most interesting thing about this isn't the film itself but imagining exiles Lang and Brecht "going to the market where lies are traded" together in 1942 Hollywood. Starting out with Stander as a cab driver gives viewers an immediate idea about the approach to depicting Prague they can expect. The portrayal of Gruber by Granach (another Jew making a living playing Nazis) was by far the most compelling aspect of the film: he'd be dead in a couple of years, unlike Selwart, who lived to 106!

A nice WWII noir with all the flaws of the subgenre but plenty of strengths to make up for it. Even as it takes a long time to set up and is replete with war effort cheerleading it has plenty of enjoyable little moments with the mix of tension and wry humour you can expect from Lang at his best. The real highlight is the climax, though. A good 30-40 minutes of twisting and turning plotting that makes the lengthy setup more than worth it.

Hard to believe Fritz Lang could make a film so unconvincing and poorly cast.