Genre:
War
Release Date: 01/18/2000
Sound: 1
Run Time: 134 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: Kino
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