Es geschah am hellichten Tag (It Happened in Broad Daylight) (1958)

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A Swiss-French coproduction, It Happened in Broad Daylight is an austere but shocking story of the hunt for a human monster. A forest community is terrorized by a child murderer, who per the title strikes in broad daylight. Whereas such a criminal might be more easily tracked down in the confines of… More A Swiss-French coproduction, It Happened in Broad Daylight is an austere but shocking story of the hunt for a human monster. A forest community is terrorized by a child murderer, who per the title strikes in broad daylight. Whereas such a criminal might be more easily tracked down in the confines of a big city, the village police are obliged to comb miles and miles of mountains and wooded wilderness. A detective (Heinz Ruhmann) goes undercover to trap the murderer, posing as a workman with a wife (actually a local widow) and child. Veteran French character actor Michel Simon briefly appears as a falsely accused suspect, who commits suicide rather than face the shame of being branded a child killer. Slightly marred by some clumsy plot contrivances and by the rather crude dubbing in the English-language prints, It Happened in Broad Daylight is nonetheless one of the more accomplished European suspensers of the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi