Production
A number of different working titles have been reported for Hangmen Also Die: "Never Surrender", "No Surrender", "Unconquered", "We Killed Hitler's Hangman" and "Trust the People". It has also been known as "Lest We Forget". It has been reported that when a book with a similar title to "Never Surrender" or "No Surrender" was published while the film was in production, the producers held a contest for the cast and crew to suggest a new title. The contest was won by a production secretary who received the $100 prize.
Teresa Wright, John Beal and Ray Middlelton were also considered at one point to appear in the film, which went into production in late October 1942 and wrapped in mid-December of that year.
Director Fritz Lang had considered beginning the film with Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem "The Murder of Lidice". He decided against it, but the poem does appear in MGM's film about Heydrich, Hitler's Madman (1943).
Hangmen was Brecht's only screen credit for an American film, although he supposedly worked on other scripts during his time in Hollywood, without receiving credit. He left the United States shortly after testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee. John Wexley received sole credit for writing the screenplay after giving evidence to the Writers Guild that Brecht and Lang had only worked on the story. Wexley himself was blacklisted after he was named a Communist in HUAC hearings.
Hangmen Also Die premiered in New York City on the 23rd or 24th of March 1943, and was then premiered again in Prague, Oklahoma on 27 March, an event which featured Adolf Hitler being hanged in effigy. The film was generally released in the U.S. on 15 April 1943.
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