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Hangmen Also Die (United Artists) is another in a long line of inside-Occupied-Europe melodramas, tailored according to a pat Hollywood formula: murder, intrigue, brutal beatings, black villains, hair-raising escapes and love-under-difficulties. Although Director Fritz Lang gives this familiar material occasional touches of distinction, the picture still misses Grade A rank.

The killing of Hitler's Hangman Reinhard Heydrich by the Czecho-Slovakian underground is the springboard from which Hangmen's characters take their dives. These include a shrewd Gestapo inspector (Alexander Granach) who makes it very tough for Prague's patriotic citizens to hide Heydrich's killer, one Dr. Svoboda (Brian Donlevy); a venerable professor (Walter Brennan) who gives his life to thwart the dastardly inspector; the professor's pretty daughter (Anna Lee) who gives her reputation--to throw the inspector off the scent, she lets herself be discovered in Dr. Svoboda's bedroom by her fiance (Dennis O'Keefe); and a local quisling (Gene Lockhart) whose double framing as both Heydrich's and the inspector's assassin solves two dilemmas with one bold stroke. Director Lang tells this story with real suspense, but seldom warms it with genuine emotion.

Forever and a Day (RKO-Radio) is a series of breathless episodes, concocted by 21 writers and played to the tune of seven directors and producers by a cast of 78 stars. Most audiences will feel as if they have been caught in a revolving door. A group of British cinemigrants in Hollywood dreamed it up in gratitude for U.S. contributions to British war relief. Writers, directors and actors worked without pay; profits will go to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

Providing parts for all hands requires 137 years' worth of story--or very nearly forever and a day. The story concerns a fabled house in London, from its building by a British admiral in 1804 until its destruction by a Nazi bomb. Among its starry occupants are Charles Laughton (a tipsy butler), Sir Cedric Hardwicke (a plumber), Claude Rains (a rich villain), Roland Young (a boarder), Merle Oberon (a desk clerk), Anna Neagle (a grownup foundling). Good scene: Brian Aherne (a coal heaver) making love to Ida Lupino (a scullery maid.)

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