Hangmen Also Die!
Hangmen Also Die is a 1943 noir war film directed by the Austrian director Fritz Lang and written by John Wexley from a story by Bertolt Brecht credited as Bert Brecht and Lang. The film stars Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Alexander Granach and Anna Lee, and features Gene Lockhart and Dennis OKeefe. The music is by Hanns Eisler and James Wong Howe served as cinematographer.
During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, surgeon Dr. Franticek Svoboda Brian Donlevy, a Czech patriot, assassinates the brutal Hangman of Europe, Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, but his getaway car is discovered and therefore his planned safe house must reject him. When a woman he doesnt know, named Mascha Anna Lee, deliberately misdirects German soldiers close to finding him, he seeks her home as an alternative safe house. This turns out to be the home of her father, history professor Stephen Novotny Walter Brennan, whom the Nazis have banned from teaching. This plan works. But because the assassin now cant be found, the Nazi leaders in Prague decide to create an incentive for him to turn himself in or for others to do so. They arrangewith the help of fifthcolumnist Emil Czaka Gene Lockhart, a wealthy brewerfor 400 citizens, including Professor Novotny, to be executed, forty at a time, until the assassin is named. Through a complex series of events, however, the resistance manages to frame Czaka himself for the murder, but not before the Nazis have executed many of the hostages.A number of different working titles have been reported for Hangmen Also Die Never Surrender, No Surrender, Unconquered, We Killed Hitlers Hangman and Trust the People. It has also been known as Lest We Forget. It has been reported that when a book with a similar title to Never Surrender or No Surrender was published while the film was in production, the producers held a contest for the cast and crew to suggest a new title. The contest was won by a production secretary who received the 100 prize. ........
Source: Wikipedia
