Hangmen Also Die! (1943), by Fritz Lang, starring Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Gene Lockhart, Anna Lee
Synopsis of Hangmen Also Die
Hangmen Also Die is set in occupied Czechoslovakia. It revolves around the successful plot by the Czech resistance to assassinate Deputy Reich-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia Hangman Reinhard Heydrich. And the hunt by the Gestapo to track down the killers that follow.
M (1931) directed by Fritz Lang, starring Peter Lorre
I’ve known for a long time that Fritz Lang was a ground-breaking movie director (Metropolis for example)–but I’ve never truly appreciated that for myself, until I recently saw his black and white movie about a search for a child murderer, titled M. Fritz Lang described M as a documentary, and I would have to agree with that–it looks, and feels, like a documentary.
The Woman in the Window, starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey, Edmund Breon, Dan Duryea
Synopsis of The Woman in the Window
When a conservative middle-aged professor engages in a minor dalliance with a femme fatale, he is plunged into a nightmarish quicksand of blackmail and murder.
Moontide(1942) starring Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, directed by Fritz Lang and Archie Mayo
Moontide is a variety of things — a forgotten movie with excellent acting, a character study, a film noir. It’s the story of a French wanderer named Bobo (Jean Gabin). Bobo is a handsome, hard-drinking man who considers himself a wandering gypsy. He wanders from place to place and job to job. His best friend Tiny (Thomas Mitchell) tails him. But this friend is more of a leech. He blackmails Bobo into paying his bills so that Tiny doesn’t have to work for a living.
Until they come to a small fishing town, and Bobo falls for a beautiful waitress (Ida Lupino). And after Bobo rescues her from an attempted suicide by drowning, the two begin falling in love. Then, Bobo begins to think about settling down for the first time … But that doesn’t fit in with Tiny’s plans. And an old man has been murdered. But Bobo remembers nothing about it since he was drinking at the time …