Because it's been little seen, and because people tend to shrug off contemporaneous World War II films as "propaganda," Hangmen Also Die has never received its due. It's a brilliant, riveting movie, made in response to the atrocities committed against the Czech people following the assassination of Reichsprotektor Heydrich, Hitler's personal "hangman." Under Fritz Lang's ferociously stylized direction, the duel of wits between the Nazi occupiers and the Prague underground--"a ghost army sworn to haunt them till their blood runs cold"--becomes the stuff of legend: virtually another installment of Die Nibelungen, and a dynamic variation on the urban phantasmagoria of the Mabuse films and Spione and M.

***

ADDITION: Orbit Media - Region 0 PAL - Aug 06' - I would say that this Orbit Media transfer is equally as bad as the Kino - with strong weaknesses (if different weaknesses) than the NTSC edition. The big issue with the PAL release, that caused difficulty in capture matching, is the terrible combing that is extremely prevalent (see many examples below).

As the times are the same we can deduce that one is taken from the opposing standard without benefit of conversion first. I'll assume that the Orbit Media is the culprit. It still has similar damage marks and artifacts - but slightly less visible than the Kino.

Hopefully someone will release this film properly on DVD soon. Our recommendation at this stage is to buy the Film Noir - The Dark Side of Hollywood boxset for the best bang for your buck.

***

Typical Kino weak to midland transfer. Artifacts, boosting, cue blips, damage (see last three captures) are all visible, but the image is acceptable on tube viewing where the deficiencies become less noticeable. No subtitle options or extras, but the good news is that this is part of the Film Noir - The Dark Side of Hollywood boxset with Sudden Fear / The Long Night / Railroaded and Behind Locked Doors coming out September 12th, 2006. By current Kino pricing standards it is an impressive deal.

SPOILER:

RE: the missing ending - Glenn Erickson noted in his review at DVD Savant HERE - "Lotte Eisner's great book Fritz Lang had the answer sought by Savant. It too listed the running time as 140 minutes. But she describes missing material, on page 230 of the hardbound edition:

"... the spectator is thrown into new suspense as to whether the conviction of Czaka will in fact halt the killing of the hostages [note: with the heroine's father among them]. Some copies of the film circulating in France do not, in fact, show the death of Novotny and the remaining hostages; but in the original version of the film the fact of the shooting of the professor was shown, followed by the flower-decked graves of the hostages, to indicate that the Nazis in fact broke their promise ..."  

 - Gregory Meshman