“Hangmen Also Die” (1943) directed by Fritz Lang, starring Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennon and Anna Lee / Z-View

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Hangmen Also Die (1943)

Director:  Fritz Lang

Screenplay: John Wexley; story by Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht

Stars:  Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Anna Lee, Gene Lockhart, Dennis O’Keefe
and Alexander Granach.

Tagline: Fritz Lang’s masterpiece of intrigue and deception.

The Plot…

World War II rages.  Nazis control Czechoslovakia.  Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi in charge of the occupation is so brutal he’s been given the nickname “The Hangman of Europe”.  The Czech resistance’s scheme to assassinate Heydrich is a success, but the escape plan goes sideways.

Dr. František Svoboda, the Hangman’s killer goes on the run.  As the Nazis close in, a young woman named Mascha helps hide Svoboda.  Unable to find their leader’s killer, the Nazis begin a door-to-door search.  They also round up civilians for executions.

With the Nazis closing in and the execution of innocents underway it appears all hope is lost…

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Hangmen Also Die! was nominated for two 1944 Academy Awards…

  • Nominee for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture – Hanns Eisler
  • Nominee for Best Sound, Recording – Jack Whitney

There really was a Nazi named Reinhard Heydrich nicknamed “The Hangmen”.  Although Heydrich was assassinated, Hangmen Also Die! is a fictionalized account.

Hangmen Also Die! was made during the height of World War II.  Hangmen Also Die! went into production just four months after the death of Reinhard Heydrich.

The Nazi response to the assassination was…

  • to wipe the village of Lidice off the map.  They dynamited and bulldozed buildings and even plowed over the local cemetery.
  • All 173 men and teenage boys over the age of 15 were lined up and shot by an execution squad.
  • Out of 105 children, 82 were murdered in gas vans. A small handful were deemed “racially suitable for Germanization” and given to SS families.
    • The remaining women were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp.
  • The village of Ležáky was also burned to the ground.  All men and women were killed and the children taken away.
  • The Czech Orthodox Church was banned and its property confiscated.  The Bishop Gorazd, the priests, and church lay leaders were arrested, tortured, and executed by firing squad.
  • The country was placed under martial law.  Executions were held daily with the names of those killed announced on the radio.   It was estimated that approximately 5,000 people were murdered or executed during the Nazi reprisals.

Hangmen Also Die (1943) rates 4 of 5 stars.

“Criminal” starring Charlie Hunnam – The Teaser is Here!

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The teaser for Criminal is here and man, does it check all the boxes.  I’ve been a fan of the graphic novel series from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips since issue one.  This series adaptation looks great.  I love that they’re dropping all episodes in each “chapter” at once.

Deal me in!

All you have to do is aim, breathe, and squeeze. From the acclaimed graphic novel series, Criminal comes to Prime Video in two parts on January 13 and 27.

“Shaun of the Dead” (2004) written by Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright, directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg / Z-View

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Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Director:  Edgar Wright

Screenplay:  Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright

Stars:  Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Nick Frost, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton.

Tagline: In a time of crisis a hero must rise…from his sofa.

The Plot…

Shaun is a 29 year-old slacker with a deadend job. Liz, his girlfriend just dumped him. She grew tired of Shaun’s promises to grow up.  Shaun would speak the words then revert back to playing video games or hanging out at the pub with his out of work friend, Ed.

Shaun and Ed are so oblivious that they don’t notice a zombie apocalypse has started until it comes to their front door.

Now Shaun has a plan.  He will rescue his mother.  And Liz.  That’s the plan.  Now all he has to do is figure out how.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

George A. Romero liked Shaun of the Dead so much he asked Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright to cameo as zombies in Land of the Dead. They did and appear as two chained zombies used in a photo stand.

My preference for zombie (and most horror) movies is a serious take.  Shaun of the Dead is the rare exception that works.

Shaun of the Dead (2004) rates 4 of 5 stars.

“Mr. T: I Pity the Fool” (2026) / Z-View

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Mr. T: I Pity the Fool (2026)

Director:  Scott Weintrob

Stars: Mr. T, Terry Crews, Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz, George Peppard, Cheri Oteri, Eddie Murphy and Hulk Hogan.

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

Mr. T burst on the scene as Clubber Lang in Rocky III.  He became world famous. A television show (The A-Team) was built around him. So was a cartoon. Feature films followed.  Mr. T became a cultural icon.

The world knows Mr. T, but how many know Laurence Tureaud, the man who became Mr. T?  This is his story.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

From humble beginings, to a career as a bodyguard to the famous, Mr. T was a self-made man.  When Sylvester Stallone gave Mr. T the opportunity, it was T’s preparation that made him a star.

Mr. T: I Pity the Fool is a nice overview.  I wish it was longer and went more in depth.  Still it does a good job through interviews with Mr. T, celebrities who worked with him as well as friends and family of hitting the high (and low) points of Mr. T’s life.

Mr. T: I Pity the Fool (2026) rates 4 of 5 stars.

HELLBENT: AN ORPHAN X NOVEL by Gregg Hurwitz / Z-View

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HELLBENT: AN ORPHAN X NOVEL by Gregg Hurwitz

First sentences…

Evan moved swiftly through the door to his penthouse suite at the Castle Heights Residential Tower, his RoamZone pressed to his ear.  The phone, encased in hardened rubber and Gorilla glass, was as durable as a hockey puck and essentially impossible to trace.  Every incoming call to 1-855-2-NOWHERE traveled in digital form over the internet through a labyrinth of encrypted virtual-private-network tunnels.  After a round-the-world tour of software telephone-switch destinations, it emerged through the receiver of the RoamZone.

Evan always answered the phone the same way.

Do you need my help?

This time, for the first time, the voice on the other end was a familiar one.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Evan Smoak and other children without families were raised in a secret off-the-books government program.  The children were called Orphans. Evan was Orphan X.

The Orphans were trained to become the ultimate assassins. As adults, they were perfect for black bag assignments. Able to kill with their hands, or any weapon, they possessed every strategy to alone and covertly complete a mission. If caught or killed, because they had no family, the government had plausible deniability.

Orphan X became a legend whose name was spoken in whispers.

Finally, Evan Smoak had enough killing. He escaped and set up a new life. Instead of taking lives, he saved them. Smoak found people with nowhere to turn and rescued them.

Evan never dreamed he would receive a call for help from Jack Johns.  Johns was the closest thing to a father Evan ever had. Now Evan has an assignment.  Find and save a sixteen year old girl Van Sciver has marked for death.

Van Sciver, the new director of the Orphan program, wants Evan dead.  Van  Sciver knows going after the child will expose Evan.  And Van Sciver will be ready with every assassin at his disposal.

+++

Greg Hurwitz’s ORPHAN X novels are immediate must buys for me.  Each new tale is intelligent, entertaining and builds on what came before.

Rating:

“Boorman and the Devil” (2025) / Z-View

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Boorman and the Devil (2025)

Director: David Kittredge

Stars: John Boorman, Louise Fletcher, Mike Flanagan, Joe Dante, Linda Blair.

Tagline: Every artist has his demon.

The Plot…

After the success of The Exorcist, a sequel was a foregone conclusion.  BUT, there were two BIG problems:

  1. William Peter Blatty, the autor of the original novel and the screenplay thought the story was complete.  He wanted nothing to do with a sequel.
  2. The Exorcist director, William Friedkin also wanted nothing to do with a sequel.

So the studio turned to John Boorman.  Boorman was coming off the success of Point Blank and Deliverence.  Boorman wasn’t afraid to tackle the sequel.  In fact Boorman had big ideas he wanted to explore and technically challenging camera set-ups he wanted to tackle. Boorman’s wanted to create an epic.

The reality turned out much differently. The movie went significantly over its shooting schedule and budget. Boorman became deathly ill forcing the production to shut down for five weeks.  Boorman planned to shoot on location at The Vatican, in Ethiopia, and the original MacNeil house and its famous steps in Georgetown. Because of delays and cost overruns, none of this happened.  Boorman was forced to repeatedly rewrite the script due to cost cuts.  Actors sometimes received new scenes right before filming.

The film was a disaster.  Critics savaged it.  After the first week audiences stayed away.  Audiences laughed during viewings.  Boorman hurriedly prepared a director’s cut, but it was too late.  It would be four years before John Boorman would direct another film.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Boorman and the Devil is an excellent peek behind the movie-making curtain. It’s ironic that this documentary is universally praised while the movie it was made about is almost universally panned.

Boorman and the Devil (2025) rates 4 of 5 stars.

“Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces” (2000) / Z-View

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Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000)

Director: Kevin Brownlow

Stars:  Lon Chaney, Kenneth Branagh, Forrest J. Ackerman, Ray Bradbury, Lon Chaney Jr., Jackie Coogan and Orson Welles.

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

Lon Chaney, “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” was the child of deaf parents.  At the age of 19, Chaney, went on the road playing in vaudeville and theater acts.

At 22, Lon Chaney married Cleva Creighton, a sixteen year old singer.  The troubled marriage produced one son and lasted eight years.  It ended when his wife attempted suicide.  A scandal followed and Lon Chaney left theater for motion pictures.

For several years Lon Chaney made his living playing bit parts for Universal.  Chaney did his own make-up and was adept at transforming his look into whatever character he was to play.  In 1919, Lon Chaney got the role that made him a star in The Miracle Man.  Bigger and better roles followed.

Chaney became famous for his ability to disappear into a character.  Whether he was playing a double amputee (The Penalty), an armless knife-thrower (The Unknown), a deformed hunchback (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), a little old lady (The Unholy Three), a horrifying skull-faced psycho (The Phantom of the Opera), or any of the other roles he took on, audiences were thrilled.  Despite his characters physical and moral failings, Chaney brought a sense of humanity to each.

At the height of his stardom, Lon Chaney developed lung cancer and died shortly after being diagnosed.  The man died.  His legend lives on.

This is his story.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Lon Chaney is my favorite silent movie star.  Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces is an excellent documentary well worth your time.

Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000) rates 5 of 5 stars.