- Es geschah am hellichten Tag
Infobox_Film
name = Es geschah am hellichten Tag
imdb_id = 0051588
writer =Friedrich Dürrenmatt ,Hans Jacoby ,Ladislao Vajda
starring =Heinz Rühmann ,Siegfried Lowitz ,Michel Simon ,Gert Fröbe
director =Ladislao Vajda
producer =
cinematography =Ernst Bolliger ,Heinrich Gärtner
distributor =
released =1958
runtime = 95 min.
language = German
music =Bruno Canfora
awards =
budget ="Es geschah am hellichten Tag" (German for "It happened in broad daylight") stands for the titles of two films, a feature movie from Switzerland (1958), directed by
Ladislao Vajda , and a German TV film byNico Hofmann (1997).Sean Penn made a third movie on this topic, named "The Pledge" (2001). The original script was written byFriedrich Dürrenmatt , a Swiss playwright and novelist.The first dramatization, for which Dürrenmatt actually authored the script, is still acclaimed by critics.
Heinz Rühmann andGert Fröbe both starred in the 1958 movie.A senior policeman is attached to elucidate the murder and possible sexual abuse of a little girl. As the policeman hopes for leads while talking with the mother of the murdered girl, he pledges to find her killer – and so, he embarks upon buying a gasoline shop in the remote area where he hopes to find the criminal, and uses a little girl as a bait to attract the killer.
All three movies share basically the same plot, but in the much more pessimistic Sean Penn version the retired police officer feels still bound by the pledge to catch the killer, unbeknownst to him that he was killed in a vehicle accident. The other two versions show the killer to be apprehended by the police.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt was not happy to see the killer captured in the story, so he wrote the novel "Das Versprechen" ("
The Pledge ") from the previous film script. "Das Versprechen" differs from "Es geschah am hellichten Tag" by the fact that the killer finally evades the police. In this sense the Sean Penn movie is a dramatization of the novel, but not the Dürrenmatt movie script.External links
*imdb title|id=0051588|title=Es geschah am hellichten Tag (1958)
*imdb title|id=0119073|title=Es geschah am hellichten Tag (1997)
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