Hangmen Also Die!

1943 • 135 minutes

About this movie

At the height of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, four German exiles in Hollywood - director Fritz Lang, playwright Bertolt Brecht, composer Hanns Eisler and actor Hans Heinrich von Twardowski - pooled their talents to create Hangmen Also Die!, a remarkable film about the Czech resistance. Twardowski plays Reinhard Heydrich, an SS Obergruppenführer and the 'Reich-Protector' of Czechoslovakia, known alternately as 'The Hangman' and 'The Butcher of Prague'. When he is assassinated by a surgeon (played by Brian Donlevy), the city is locked down and the doctor must rely on the help of the resistance to evade capture. Hangmen Also Die! Is a gripping blend of war picture, film noir and political thriller.