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1943, 131 MINS, US
CAST:
(United Artists)
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Click here to buy posters!
1943, 131 MINS, US
CAST:
(United Artists)
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From a directorial standpoint this is a triumph for Fritz Lang, who succeeds with singular success in capturing the spirit of the Czech
people in the face of the Nazi reign of terror.
UA sunk plenty of coin into the picture.
Cameraman James Wong Howe, in particular, turns in a magnificent job.
The cast, topped by Brian Donlevy and
Walter Brennan, is uniformly splendid, with
the performances of Gene Lockhart, as a cowering Quisling Czech, and Alexander Granach, as a shrewd, calculating and ruthless inspector of the Geslapo, being particularly outstanding. Story continuity is fine and absorbing throughout, but essentially it's the
incisive terms of the message propounded
that sets Hangmen apart and points up
fact that propaganda can be art.
Saga of the courageous spirit of the Czechs
starts with the assassination of Heydrich, the
hangman, by an appointed member of the underground (Donlevy), but the plans for his escape go awry and, due to the stringent curfew laws, he is forced to spend the night at the
home of a professor and his daughter. In order to save her father, who is held as hostage
along with several hundred others until the
assassin will be given up, she goes to the
Gestapo to reveal his identity, but realizes
that the spirit of the Czech people has made of him a symbol of freedom and that the underground will protect him at all costs.
Both Donlevy and Brennan, as the professor, are excellent, the latter emerging in the
film as a figure of heroic proportions.
yul brynner | christopher plummer | romy schneider
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