Hangmen Also Die! (1943) Reaction & Analysis — Noir Investigation of Heydrich's Assassination

🎬 Welcome back to Film Appreciation Night (FAN)! Continuing our M:I-WW2 series (Mission: Impossible, WW2 edition), we're covering Fritz Lang's 1943 film Hangmen Also Die!, co-written with Bertolt Brecht. Setup: 1942, Nazi-occupied Prague. A Czech surgeon assassinates Reinhard Heydrich, the "Hangman of Prague," then slips into the crowd and takes refuge with a local family. The Gestapo retaliates by rounding up hundreds of hostages and promising to execute them until the killer is handed over. The Czech underground hides the assassin, traps a collaborator who knows too much, and frames him as the culprit to feed the Gestapo a false answer before the hostages die. In this reaction & first watch, we're digging into: ✅ Recreating Heydrich assassination before the facts are in ✅ How this tale still informs our M:I-WW2 series ✅ Source of Inglorious Basterd's Hans Lanza? Whether you know this one already or you're coming in fresh, join us as we keep working through M:I-WW2. 🔔 Subscribe for more Film Appreciation Night content, and catch up on the rest of the M:I-WW2 thread if you missed Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, The Guns of Navarone, The Sea Wolves, Female Agents, Five Graves to Cairo, or Eye of the Needle. NOTE: *Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. All rights belong to their respective owners. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. BrenVids and Bren.us are for the celebration and consideration of movies. Bren strongly encourages everyone to watch the complete, official version to get the full impact of the work. Support the original creators and studio by renting, purchasing, or streaming the film through regular channels. What is shown is a deeply edited version. Important story elements may be removed. #FilmAppreciationNight #MIWW2 #HangmenAlsoDie #WW2Movies