Heydrich was actually killed by a team of expatriates sent by the British. Fritz Lang's long (134 minutes) seems to me to be more relatable to his masterpiece M, in which the police and the underworld search separately for the insane murderer, leading into a bizarre sequence in which the criminals hold a trial of Peter Lorre, a nightmarish reflection of the normal. Here, the Gestapo searches for murderer Brian Donleavy, taking hostages and shooting them, which causes Donleavy a lot of angst. Meanwhile, the Underground creates an illusion that it is a spy who has infiltrated their organization who has done the killing. So it becomes a race: can they convince the Nazis before the hostages are all killed? And are the deaths worth it to them?
There's a certain amount of standard WWII propaganda about the valiant people of the occupied countries, but Lang gets some startlingly good performances. You wouldn't expect Byron Foulger to be someone you'd want in your underground, nor for Jonathan Hale to be brave with a bullet in his lungs, but it's in movies like these, when skilled actors step out of their comfort zones, that tell the audience that they, too, can be brave. With Walter Brennan, Lionel Stander, Sara Padden, Dennis O'Keefe, Anna Lee, George Irving, and Reinhold Schünzel.
There's a certain amount of standard WWII propaganda about the valiant people of the occupied countries, but Lang gets some startlingly good performances. You wouldn't expect Byron Foulger to be someone you'd want in your underground, nor for Jonathan Hale to be brave with a bullet in his lungs, but it's in movies like these, when skilled actors step out of their comfort zones, that tell the audience that they, too, can be brave. With Walter Brennan, Lionel Stander, Sara Padden, Dennis O'Keefe, Anna Lee, George Irving, and Reinhold Schünzel.