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 by Nico Hofmann (1997). Sean Penn made a third movie on this topic, named The Pledge (2001). The original script was written by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, a Swiss novelist.

The first dramatization, for which Dürrenmatt actually authored the script, is still acclaimed by critics. Heinz Rühmann and Gert 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.

Several young girls were killed in a rural area. Thus Inspector Matthaei has to travel to the region where it happened and has to search for the killer. When all the people suspect a roamer to be the killer he gets lynched and everybody thinks that the crimes will stop now but not Matthaei who searches for a blond girl that looks just like the ones that were murdered. He finds one and stays with her and her mother, attracting the murderer with the girl trying to catch him this way. Written by Volker Boehm

Several young girls were killed. Policeman Matthaei travels to the region where it happened and searches a child that looks similar to the ones that were murdered. He finds one and stays with her and her mother, not telling them that he is waiting for the killer to start his bloody work one more time ... Written by Wolfgang Klimt