SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

jacobs-greenwood This World War II propaganda thriller featuring a better than average plot and tolerable jingoism was co-produced and directed by Fritz Lang, who also co-wrote its story (with Bertolt Brecht) that was adapted by John Wexley. Set in occupied Czechoslovakia, the drama begins with the (unseen) assassination of the ruling Nazi official, German officer Reinhard Heydrich (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), known to the Czech people as "the hangman" for his brutal tactics during Germany's occupation of their country. The Czechs were unified in their resistance against these occupying forces; their work was intentionally slow and they refused to snitch on each other for acts that hindered their oppressors. Hence, when the assassin (Brian Donlevy) is escaping, he's assisted by Nasha Novotny (Anna Lee), who directs the pursuing Germans in the opposite direction. However, the extreme actions which the unrelenting Nazis take to ferret out the assassin begin to make some Czechs question their devotion to the cause. Nasha is among the first because her father, Professor Stephen Novotny (Walter Brennan), is imprisoned along with hundreds of others marked for execution unless the assassin is revealed and captured.The Nazis are assisted by a traitor, Emil Czaka (Gene Lockhart), a brewer who lines his pockets while helping the Germans with their strategies and in capturing or killing members of the underground (like Byron Foulger's character). Gestapo Inspectors Gruber (Alexander Granach) and Ritter (Reinhold Schünzel) focus their attention and pressure on Nasha, who'd mistakenly brought herself and her family to their attention when she had a momentary lapse in patriotism. She deduces that the assassin is not an architect named Karel Vanek, as he'd first introduced himself, but is actually a surgeon, Dr. Franticek Svoboda. But after Nasha witnesses the brave resistance of others that she knows (e.g. a grocer played by Sarah Padden), she helps Svoboda to use her initial almost betrayal against Gruber and Ritter to ensnare Czaka. Her assistance in this effort is complicated by her fiancé (Dennis O'Keefe) Jan Horak's misunderstanding of the situation, but Jan eventually figures out Nasha's participation and joins the fight.This dramatic film's Score was nominated for an Academy Award, its Sound Recording was also Oscar nominated. Nana Bryant, Margaret Wycherly, Tonio Selwart, and Lionel Stander are among the other credited actors in the cast.

Robert J. Maxwell If you're going to enjoy this, you'd better clear your mind of any knowledge you might hold of the assassination of Heydrich in occupied Czechoslovakia. Treat this as a fictional tale about a fictional hunt for a fictional assassin in Prague.The historical facts are too depressing anyway. Heydrich was murdered by two guys. The Nazis tortured Czechs until one of them squealed. Then they tracked the assassins to a church and the two killers committed suicide. The Nazis then destroyed a village that had nothing to do with political events. See "Operation: Daybreak."Here, we have Brian Donlevy as a doctor in Prague who shoots Heydrich. He then has to seek immediate shelter in the house of strangers, in this case, the home of Professor Walter Brennan and his family, including daughter Anna Lee.The Gestapo are understandably upset and they organize a manhunt for the killer, which centers around Donlevy and around the family that sheltered him. The Nazis round up and execute Czechs at random but nobody talks. And, in the end, the underground frames a Nazi agent for the crime.The Nazis aren't shown as stupid brutes. Alexander Granach, the Gestapo Inspector, is positively clever in a swinish, almost comic way. Fritz Lang has him with a haircut that the punk rockers of the 80s would have envied. His military mustache curls up at the ends, as in a morale-boosting poster left over from World War I and his plump neck hangs over his collar. His gestures are operatic, his perceptions acute, his consumption of beer heroic.Not far behind, if in fact he's behind at all, is Reinhold Schünzel as the uniformed Gestapo officer. He smiles pleasantly, leaning back and tripling his chin, while describing the torture that a suspect is about to undergo, but in an avuncular way, as if about to buy a child an ice cream cone. While the victim stands shivering, Schünzel grins, swivels in his office chair, and cracks his knuckles one by one.Less of an actor but more of a straight figure is Tonio Selwart as the Chief of the Gestapo. Less of a caricature, more of a character. He doesn't smile or squint. He speaks quietly and with sweet reason. And he wears those great uniforms with riding breeches and boots, and he wears a monocle, and Fritz Lang shows us Selwart peering into a mirror and squeezing a zit on his cheek.The good guys are much less interesting. Brian Donlevy is referred to as a young man but he's a little old for that. I mean, the guy was in Mexico with General Pershing in pursuit of Panch Villa, wasn't he? And anyway, he's practically ligneous. If his expression ever changed, I missed it, and he walks with his chest thrown out like a pigeon's. Dennis O'Keefe, in a minor part, is harmless as always. Walter Brennan, toothless old Walter Brennan, comic sidekick, does rather well by the role of a professor of history, and Anna Lee as his daughter is cute as hell. Slender, wide-eyed, shivering with fright. I love her. The problem is that all the good guys stand around spraying patriotic clichés just as a lawn sprinkler sprays water.No, it's not Fritz Lang's best picture but neither is it is worst. The script credit goes to Berthold Brecht but I understand he didn't contribute much. Still, I'm glad he was in Hollywood instead of (gulp) elsewhere. His songs for the comedy "Where Do We Go From Here?" are memorable. Lang was a popular director in Germany and was asked by Goebbels to head the movie propaganda program of the Third Reich. As he describes it, he replied, "I'm tickled pink," and was on the next airplane out of Berlin. He brings some of his expressionism and originality with him. The dark, deep, dramatic shadows of films like "Ministry of Fear" are already adumbrated, so to speak.And he does something that should earn him a medal. Lang was fond of using mirrors in his films for some reason. (Check out "Woman in the Window.") Here, he has Granach run to a mirror to inspect some smeared lipstick on his cheeks. And -- guess what -- Granach looks AT HIS OWN REFLECTION and not at the camera lens. When the actor looks at the audience instead of himself, it's a jarring estrangement for the viewer, who is hit over the head with the realization that this is not just a movie, but a clumsily directed one, an insulting one, at that.You know, considering that so many of the cast were born in Germany, you have to wonder just how often directions were given in English. Lang was quite an authoritarian. I can see him now, strutting about with his boots, riding breeches, and monocle, bellowing orders through a bullhorn.

nohosky-1 This is a very interesting film produced at the height of the war in Europe (1943). The script was based upon actual incidents but was fictionalized for a heightened dramatic effect. It's a frightening and at times depressing film, yet fascinating at the same time. Walter Brennan plays a straight role of a professor whose family is indicted in terror when the eldest daughter (Anna Lee) unwittingly assists an assassin (Brian Donlevy) escaping from the Nazis. This film portrays the cruelty and the overwhelming terror of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and Bertolt Brecht, it is very powerful, forthright and unflinching with an almost documentary like style. Particularly strong performances by Brennan and Lee with Gene Lockhart and Alexander Granach as the films two unbelievably despicable villains. The filmmakers don't shy away from war in it's most terrifying form - the destruction of the lives of average people.

zetes Very good anti-Nazi propaganda from Fritz Lang. The story concerns the real-life assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the commander in charge of the Czechoslovakian occupation. The Nazis round up a bunch of adult men in Prague and threaten to execute a number of them every day until the assassin turns himself in or is turned in. Brian Donlevy plays that assassin, a doctor working with the Czech underground. He is helped after the assassination by Anna Lee. Like all good Czech citizens, she wants to protect Donlevy, but when her own father (Walter Brennan) is taken hostage by the Nazis, she is torn. Anna Lee is one of my favorite underrated actresses from the classic era (my favorite of her performances is in the Val Lewton picture Bedlam), and she's wonderful here. Most of the rest of the cast is quite good, as well, especially Gene Lockhart as a Czech who is collaborating with the Nazis. The one big exception in the cast is Alexander Granach, who plays the chief of the Gestapo. He overacts quite a bit. The direction and story (co-written by Bertolt Brecht) are quite good, though I think it starts to get sloppy near the end. It definitely goes on a tad too long. But I very much liked it as a whole.