Hangmen Also Die

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.

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.

A lot of times these WW2 era propaganda pieces can feel unsubtle and overly rah rah, but this one overcomes those issues. There's thoughtful commentary about the moralities of righteous resistance movements putting regular people at risk, for instance. What really makes it stand out, though, is the brilliant cat and mouse game between the resistance/Nazis. Both sides are smart and the way the scheme works is as satisfyingly as a great heist movie. Another incredible and underrated Lang.

way too long

Fritz Lang makes a detailed wartime movie using the corrupt madness of the Nazis to make a real nice thriller. Wouldn't have minded swapping Brian Donlevy for any other rugged guy, but evil dudes were really well cast. This is basically a chess game between the Nazis and the resistance, which made the intense and sloppy lurking of main Gestapo honcho Alexander Granach the highlight of this. Not Lang at his sharpest, but there was a playfulness in this which made it dark fun.

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.

Don't think this film aged well, it's big dramatic scenes just don't play.

Held my interest but failed to blow my mind as his more awesome works can do with consistency.

A bit cheesy and naive given the subject matter.

Interesting plot, but not a very interesting film. It drags on for too long and fills the time with irrelevant scenes. It also felt much too tame, especially in its depiction of the German's torture, and was unable to have any emotional effect.

I guess times were rough, you couldn't make a decent anti-Nazi picture back then. A for effort tho.

Excellent film about resistance to the Nazis.

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