The Judge and His Hangman

The Judge and His Hangman
2 Film and television
The Judge and His Hangman (German: Der Richter

und sein Henker) is a 1950 novel by the Swiss writer
Friedrich Drrenmatt. It was rst published in English
in 1954, in a translation by Cyrus Brooks and later in
a translation by Therese Pol. A new translation by Joel
Agee appeared in 2006, published together with it sequel
Suspicion, as The Inspector Brlach Mysteries, with a foreword by Sven Birkerts. Together with Drrenmatts The
Pledge: Requiem for the Detective Novel, these stories are
considered classics of crime ction, fusing existential philosophy and the detective genre.
For the rst time Der Richter und sein Henker was
adaptated by the German television Sddeutscher
Rundfunk in 1957, using the same title.[1] It aired
on 7 September 1957. In 2012 the lm has been
released on DVD for the rst time.
In 1961 the British Broadcasting Corporation produced a second adaptation. It was shown as an
episode of the long-running series of televised plays
BBC Sunday-Night Play titled The Judge and His
Hangman. It premiered on 17 December 1961.[2]
Frank Pettingell acted in the role of Inspector Hans
Brlach, Brian Bedford played Lieutenant Chanz.
The episode does not exist in the BBC archives, and
is believed to be lost.
Themes
Daniele D'Anza directed the third adaptation in

1971/72. Radiotelevisione Italiana aired Il giudice
e il suo boia on 6 February 1972, starring Paolo
Stoppa as Brlach and Ugo Pagliai as Tschanz.[3]
The TV movie has since been released on DVD in
2009.
The central question of this book is whether or not it is

right to frame a person for a crime they didn't commit, if
they've committed another crime that was never proven.
Brlach arms the question when he says to Gastmann:
I couldn't prove that it was you who committed the rst
crime, but I am transferring this crime to you therefore, Gastmann, the very embodiment of evil criminality,
was nally punished.
On 8 November 1974, the fourth adaptation was

produced under the titel Le juge et son bourreau
for a French broadcasting corporation.[4] The TV
movie was directed by Daniel Le Comte and starred
Charles Vanel in the role of commissaire Baerlach.
The role of Tschanz was renamed as lieutnant Terrence, played by Gilles Sgal. The TV movie remains unreleased on the home video market.
The interplay between Brlach and Lutz takes on a symbolic dimension. Lutz, the university educated overseer, insists on the ecacy of modern, scientic crimesolving methods from the Chicago school, which is
based mainly on circumstantial evidence and forensics.
Brlach is skeptical, relying instead on his deep knowledge of human motives, born of lifelong experience.
Tschanz, Brlachs underling, makes use of the modern
evidence-to-proof method and serves as a contrast to Brlachs style of natural intuition and usage of human manipulation. While Tschanzs methods make ostensible
progress on the case, ultimately, it is Brlachs intuitive
sense that has long since enabled him to determine the
truth, and also enables him to use Tschanz to settle his
old score with Gastmann.
The novel was once more made into a lm in 1975,

titled End of the Game, directed by Maximilian
Schell, with screenplay by Drrenmatt and Schell.[5]
Jon Voight took lead billing as Walter Tschanz, with
Martin Ritt as Hans Brlach and Robert Shaw as
Richard Gastmann. Jacqueline Bisset and Friedrich
Drrenmatt also appeared in the lm, and Donald
Sutherland played the role of the corpse of Ulrich
Schmied. German silent lm actress Lil Dagover
made her last screen appearance before retirement
in the lm. The lm was also reissued as Getting
Away With Murder, Murder on the Bridge and Deception. The original 105 minute lm version has
not been released on the home video market. The
shorter 91 minute international version has been restored and released on a German Blu-ray edition in
2011.
One can understand the novel also as question: When

humans determine themselves the fate of others they become the judges, and when they become the instrument
of others they become the henchmen. Having been set
up by Brlach to kill Gastmann, Tschanz says to Brlach
at the end of the story, Then you were the judge and I
the hangman. Tschanz then kills himself the following
day by stopping his car on an active railroad track.
1
Main article: End of the Game
References
[1] Der Richter und sein Henker (1957) at the Internet Movie
Database
[2] BBC Sunday-Night Play The Judge and His Hangman
(1961) at the Internet Movie Database
[3] Il giudice e il suo boia (1972) at the Internet Movie
Database
[4] Le juge et son bourreau (1974) at the Internet Movie
Database
[5] Der Richter und sein Henker (1975) at the Internet Movie
Database (aka End of the Game, US)
External links
Friedrich Drrenmatt home page sponsored by the
University of Chicago Press. Includes a 1969 interview with Drrenmatt, his story Smithy and essay
Automobile and Railroad Nations, and essays on
Drrenmatt.
EXTERNAL LINKS
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The Judge and His Hangman

2 Film and television

The Judge and His Hangman (German: Der Richter

Daniele D'Anza directed the third adaptation in

The central question of this book is whether or not it is

On 8 November 1974, the fourth adaptation was

The novel was once more made into a lm in 1975,

One can understand the novel also as question: When

Main article: End of the Game

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

The Judge and His Hangman Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Judge_and_His_Hangman?oldid=758367238 Contributors:

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

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