It Happened in Broad Daylight

The three films follow the same basic plot, where a senior police detective is detached to investigate 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.

• Heinz Rühmann as Oberleutnant Matthäi
• Sigfrit Steiner as Detektiv Feller
• Siegfried Lowitz as Leutnant Heinzi
• Michel Simon as Jacquier
• Heinrich Gretler as Polizeikommandant [Chief of Police]
• Gert Fröbe as Herr Schrott
• Berta Drews as Frau Schrott
• Ewald Balser as Professor Manz (voiced in English version by Roger Livesey)
• María Rosa Salgado as Frau Heller
• Anita von Ow as Annemarie Heller, her daughter
• Barbara Haller as Ursula Fehlmann
• Emil Hegetschweiler as Gemeindepräsident [town mayor]
• Ettore Cella as Tankstellenbesitzer [Gas station owner]

The inn featured in the film, Gasthaus zum Löwen in Bonstetten, photographed in 2014

Filming took place from 22 February to April 1958 near Zürich and Chur. Interiors were shot at Praesens Atelier and the Spandau Studios in Berlin.[2]

The film premiered on 4 July 1958 at the IFF/Berlin. It went on general release on 9 July 1958. In Switzerland it premiered on 12 July 1958 (Rex, Zürich).[2]

Awards

Nominated

• 8th Berlin International Film Festival: Golden Bear[3]

Remakes & Adaptations

• In 1979, an Italian remake, directed by Alberto Negrin, under the title La promessa was released.
• In 1995, a Dutch remake, directed by Rudolf Van Den Berg, under the title The Cold Light of Day was released.
• In 1997, a German tv film remake, directed by Nico Hofmann, under the original title Es geschah am hellichten Tag was released.
• In 2001, an English remake, directed by Sean Penn, under the title The Pledgewas released.
• In 2018, a Tamil partial adaptation, directed by Ram kumar, under the title Ratsasan was released.
• In 2019, a Telugu remake of the above mentioned movie Ratsasan, directed by Ramesh Varma, under the title Rakshasudu was released.

Friedrich Dürrenmatt was not 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 existing 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 the murderer's death in an auto accident. This failure ultimately leaves the detective a broken and witless old man.

American director Sean Penn made a fifth movie on the same theme, named The Pledge in 2001, starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Mirren. Penn's movie incorporates Das Versprechen's darker ending, as preferred by Dürrenmatt.

• Es geschah am hellichten Tag at IMDb