Hangmen Also Die

It is somewhat irrelevant to muse on how Lang's Hollywood films would have looked if he had been able to command large budgets and high production values. It is easy to mock the cardboard sets but for me they somehow highten the expressionism of his films that explore the nature of evil societies and the way they corrupt individuals.

Again here Lang uses his trap theme of an invididual condemned by his circumstances, though in this case it is a bad guy who gets caught in a fateful loop (compare with 'You only live once' and 'Scarlet Street'). Lang and Bertolt Brecht colaborated on a script of considerable intensity that tightens the noose as the plot advances. As so often with Lang the forensic detail heightens the interest , the notes, letters and newspapers - we even have code translated in an interesting coda to the film. Recommended to all fans of Lang and all those interested in expressionism in film.

From; SILVER HARP Edinburgh

Hangmen Also Die

(Fritz Lang Hollywood)

The severe, and numerous, off-putting elements are compensated-for later by heightening suspense and a clever storyline.

The lead actress clearly learnt her trade watching old silent movies - like the guy in deepest Africa who learned English by listening to short-wave radio and included the whistle-tones of poor reception, our friend here is given to occasional, and often quite alarming, darting about and pointing.

A nice touch though is the synchronized quality of the acting with the cardboard sets; the latter being used to such economic effect as to put most modern-day eco-warriors to shame.

For those of us who have, thankfully, never met a high-ranking Nazi officer it’s hard to tell if they were all incredibly camp, gay, characters as portrayed here by their mincing and expressions of self-adulation, or if the forerunners of the Village People are just over-pleased to have got to the Wardrobe Department first. On the other hand, the main interrogator guy not only missed-out on the snazzy uniforms but ended-up with a Charlie Chaplin suit.

If you can keep focussed despite all this, the story does become quite suspenseful and entertaining – though it has to be said the Nazi’s give up long before the corniness does.

A superb black and white film. Worth watching.