Hangmen Also Die!

Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi “Reich Protector” Heydrich, Masha Novotny, a professor’s daughter, hides the culprit in her parents’ apartment. When the Gestapo take 400 people hostage in retaliation, Masha’s father is among those arrested. The assassin, Dr. med. Svoboda, manages to escape, however. As they search for him, the Gestapo also trains their sights on Masha. Whilst hostages are being executed daily, she helps Svoboda in his efforts to blame the assassination on a collaborator and save her father’s life ... From Caligari to Heydrich: In Lang’s famous anti-Nazi thriller – based on a script by Brecht and music by Hanns Eisler – veterans of the “Haunted Screen” (Lotte Eisner) act as Nazi thugs, who, by reviving the old repertoire of typical Nazi, made a lasting impact on the cinema. In addition to Heydrich actor Hans Heinrich von Twardowski (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, 1920), their number includes Alexander Granach (Nosferatu) and former “serial rogue” Reinhold Schünzel (“…outrageous in his cynical brutality, his cunning eroticism, depravity and lowness …”), who – as a Gestapo inspector, too – is sadistic, elegant and effeminate.