Es geschah am hellichten Tag (It Happened in Broad Daylight) is the title of a 1958 Swiss suspense film directed by Ladislao Vajda. In 1997, it was remade under the same title as a German TV film, directed by Nico Hoffmann. There was also a Dutch remake of the film, by Rudolf Van Den Berg

Rudolf van den Berg

Rudolf van den Berg is a Dutch writer and director.Van den Berg has been making films and documentaries for over thirty years now. Often praised and crowned, sometimes seriously criticized, Van den Berg's work has always succeeded in stirring passionate reactions.His eighth feature film Tirza was...

, under the title The Cold Light of Day made in 1995. The original screenplay was written by Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Friedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-garde dramas, philosophically deep crime novels, and often macabre satire...

, a Swiss playwright and novelist, and the first incarnation of the film is still acclaimed by critics. Heinz Rühmann

Heinz Rühmann

Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann was a popular German film actor.-Life and work:Rühmann was born in Essen, Westphalia. His role in the 1930 movie Die Drei von der Tankstelle led him to film stardom. He remained highly popular as a comedic actor throughout the 1930s and early 1940s...

 and Gert Fröbe

Gert Fröbe

Karl Gerhart Fröbe, better known as Gert Fröbe was a German actor who starred in many films, including the James Bond film Goldfinger as Auric Goldfinger, The Threepenny Opera as Peachum, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Baron Bomburst, and in Der Räuber Hotzenplotz as Hotzenplotz.-Life:Born in...

 both starred in the 1958 movie.

Plot

The three films follow the same basic plot, where a senior police detective is attached to elucidate the murder of a little girl. As the detective hopes for leads while talking with the mother of the murdered girl, he pledges to find her killer – and so, even after leaving the police force, he embarks upon buying a gasoline shop in the remote area where he hopes to find the criminal, and uses a little girl as bait to attract the killer. His trap is ultimately successful in ensnaring the murderer.

Cast

• Heinz Rühmann
  Heinz Rühmann
  Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann was a popular German film actor.-Life and work:Rühmann was born in Essen, Westphalia. His role in the 1930 movie Die Drei von der Tankstelle led him to film stardom. He remained highly popular as a comedic actor throughout the 1930s and early 1940s...
  
   - Oberleutnant Matthäi
• Sigfrit Steiner - Det. Feller
• Siegfried Lowitz
  Siegfried Lowitz
  Siegfried Lowitz was a German actor who is most famous for playing Hauptkommissar Erwin Köster in the German television drama Der Alte....
  
   - Lt. Heinzi
• Michel Simon
  Michel Simon
  Michel Simon , was a Swiss actor. The actor François Simon is his son.-Early years:...
  
   - Jacquier
• Heinrich Gretler
  Heinrich Gretler
  -Selected filmography:* Gilberte de Courgenay * Herz der Welt * Es geschah am hellichten Tag * The Ideal Woman * Kohlhiesel's Daughters -External links:...
  
   - Polizeikommandant
• Gert Fröbe
  Gert Fröbe
  Karl Gerhart Fröbe, better known as Gert Fröbe was a German actor who starred in many films, including the James Bond film Goldfinger as Auric Goldfinger, The Threepenny Opera as Peachum, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Baron Bomburst, and in Der Räuber Hotzenplotz as Hotzenplotz.-Life:Born in...
  
   - Schrott
• Berta Drews - Frau Schrott
• Ewald Balser
  Ewald Balser
  Ewald Balser was a German film actor. He appeared in 53 films between 1935 and 1975.He was born in Elberfeld, Germany and died in Vienna, Austria.-Selected filmography:* The Trial * Eroica...
  
   - Professor Manz
• Roger Livesey
  Roger Livesey
  Roger Livesey was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going! and A Matter of Life and Death...
  
   - Professor Manz (voice: English version)
• María Rosa Salgado - Frau Heller
• Anita von Ow - Annemarie Heller
• Barbara Haller - Ursula Fehlmann
• Emil Hegetschweiler - Gemeindepräsident

Alternative versions

Friedrich Dürrenmatt had not been happy to see the detective proven successful at the end the story, so he wrote the novel Das Versprechen: Requiem auf den Kriminalroman (The Pledge: Requiem for the Detective Novel) from the previous film script. Das Versprechen differs from Es geschah am hellichten Tag by having the detective fail to identify the killer in the end because of murderer's death in an auto accident. This failure ultimately leaves the detective a broken and witless old man.

American director Sean Penn

Sean Penn

Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...

 made a fourth movie on the topic, named The Pledge

The Pledge (film)

The Pledge is a 2001 American mystery film directed by Sean Penn. It is based on the 1958 novella Das Versprechen: Requiem auf den Kriminalroman , by Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt...

in 2001. Penn's movie incorporates Das Versprechens darker ending, as preferred by Dürrenmatt.