Man Hunt
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Movie Reviews of Man Hunt
Movie Review: man hunt
Summary: 5 Stars
a classic of the suspense of the period-not to be missed. Edge of the seat storyline with brilliant direction by Fritz lang.Movie Review: "Like you, my dear Thorndike," says Gestapo officer Quive-Smith, "I've had but one passion in life...the hunting of big game."
Summary: 4 Stars
The big game hunter, a well-bred British gentleman wearing tweeds and plus fours, has worked his way to the edge of the clearing. He sets up his custom-made precision rifle, attaches the scope and gives one more look through his binoculars. Then he settles in, places the creature in his cross hairs, slowly pulls the trigger...and smiles with satisfaction at the click. There was no bullet in the chamber and the target -- Adolph Hitler -- continues his walk around the Berghof. Please note that elements of the plot are discussed.
The date is July 29, 1939, and this British adventurer of good family (his brother is Lord Risborough of the Foreign Office) has completed a sporting stalk. That is, as Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) explains later, "stalking big game for the fun of it, not to kill...the sport is in the chase, not the kill...I no longer kill, not even small game." But then Thorndike thinks again, chambers a bullet, and again takes aim...and at that moment a Gestapo guard lunges at him, the rife goes off, and Thorndike finds himself questioned by the suave German, Quive-Smith (George Sanders), a Gestapo officer who fancies himself a hunter, too. Quive (pronounced Keeve)-Smith appreciates Thorndike's skill, thinks his "sporting stalk" idea is nonsense and has a wonderful idea. Thorndike will sign a confession of his intent to assassinate the Fuehrer under orders from the British government. Then he'll be let go. Of course, Thorndike refuses. He is beaten, escapes and makes his way back to Britain.
Now the hunter becomes the hunted. Apparently every German agent Quive-Smith has in Britain is after Thorndike. They show up everywhere. They range from a thin man in a wing collar carrying a sword cane to Bobbies to rough thugs. Then Quive-Smith turns up in London to direct the hunt. Thorndike knows that if they catch him they will stage a suicide and release a "signed" confession. His only hope is his wits, his instincts and the help of a young Cockney girl, Jerry Stokes (Joan Bennett).
The last ten minutes should have been tense and satisfying. Instead it's a match to decide which is worse, Sanders' sneering superiority or Pidgeon's polemic over-acting. With Quive-Smith, it's "We're on the march at last, Thorndike. Today, Europe. Tomorrow, the world!" For Thorndike, trapped in a cave by Quive-Smith, Jerry's arrow hatpin that he bought for her just may be the device that will set the greatest hunter of big game free. And this time, on a hunt that will not be a sporting stalk.
Man Hunt is Fritz Lang's first propaganda film. Like so many of his Hollywood movies, it has a lot of flaws and some superb strengths. In this case, the dialogue is stodgy, the plot's coincidences undermine the story, and the style of the movie, featuring British gentlemen of impeccable manners and insouciant bravery, is as dated as the British Empire. With one exception, the stars don't help. Walter Pidgeon was a capable, honorable, stalwart secondary lead in many movies. He brings little else to the role. George Sanders is just about awful, a collection of sneers and superiority wearing a monocle. Lang always made his Nazi villains caricatures. One Nazi bad guy even has a sore on his face. At least Lang doesn't give Sanders a chancre to deal with,
But then there is Joan Bennett as Jerry. She's hardly believable as a Cockney, but she's just about perfect as a young woman, poor and down on her luck, who meets this handsome, honorable, aristocratic man who treats her nicely. Jerry thinks, innocently, she may have found her prince. She falls for him; she knows in her heart it can never be and yet she wants to believe somehow it might be. Joan Bennett plays it straight. When they are in her room and we hear the strains of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," we know Jerry will do anything to protect Thorndike and that it probably won't turn out well for her.
Most importantly, we have Fritz Lang's way with a camera, with lighting and with setting scenes that grab our attention and speed us past the weaker bits. Lang gives us pacing, anti-Nazi propaganda and, when the story moves to London, some extraordinary-looking night scenes filled with wet and mist, with bricked streets, dark alleys, lonely street lights and shadows that move. It doesn't hurt that Man Hunt has echoes of The 39 Steps, The Most Dangerous Game and Foreign Correspondent.
One last word about Bennett. She's one of Hollywood's most under-appreciated actresses. Just consider some of the directors she chose to work with and the movies they made after she'd achieved enough clout to make her own decisions: Fritz Lang with The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street and Secret Beyond the Door; Max Ophuls with The Reckless Moment; Zoltan Korda with The Macomber Affair; Jean Renoir with The Woman on the Beach. In many cases she was the reason these directors got the financing. She was beautiful, smart and a fine actress who didn't mind taking risks.
Movie Review: Pre-war Hollywood anti-Nazi film
Summary: 4 Stars
"Man Hunt"
(1941)
Like the more famous "Casablanca," director Fritz Lang's "Manhunt" belongs to that brief Hollywood sub-genre of anti-Nazi political films released before the American entry into World War Two. At the time, American politics were still in the throes of anti-interventionist isolationism, and an unwillingness to enter into the violent conflict overseas. Lang, of course, had a stake in the fight -- unwilling to submit to Nazi authority, he had fled Germany several years before and reestablished his career elsewhere. Like "Casablanca," the on-screen brutality of the Hollywood Nazis seems tame compared to the horrific genocidal sadism later revealed in the real-world of Nazi-dominated Europe.
The film's hero, a gallant English adventurer played by Walter Pidgeon, is roughed up by the krauts, and later hunted through the streets of London by a German hit squad sent to silence him, but the level of violence isn't that far from the gangster films of the era. The politics become less pointed as the film goes on -- the plot becomes more about the hunt and less about the Germans; also, Pidgeon meets a young girl who helps him and as they fall in love the movie becomes focussed on their relationship and the class differences between the working class girl and the debonnaire (but cheerfully un-snobby) hero. The film becomes decidedly more and more "English," and slows to the pace of British films of the time, less thrilling and more cerebral. Still, it's a nice document of its time, and a fine opportunity to fill out one's understanding of Fritz Lang's ouvre. Definitely worth checking out, although a little flat towards the end. (Joe Sixpack, Slipcue film review blog)
Movie Review: THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME in an Urban Setting
Summary: 4 Stars
MAN HUNT (1941) has one of the most unforgettable opening sequences in movie history.
The year is 1939. Renowned British big game hunter Walter Pidgeon moves quietly, swiftly through a Bavarian forest, avoiding sentries. Soon, he reaches the edge of a cliff, assembles his long-range rifle and takes careful aim at his prey.
In his cross-hairs is Adolph Hitler.
Naturally, Pidgeon is thwarted before he can pull the trigger. He is beaten and taken before Gestapo leader George Sanders, who promises him freedom if he will confess to being an assassin, sent to kill Hitler for the British Government.
Almost by accident, Pidgeon escapes and is able to make his way back to England. He is followed by Sanders and several of his henchmen, including John Carradine, who still want him to sign the false confession that will embarrass the Brits and put the country in a difficult political position.
One of the few people willing to help Pidgeon is Joan Bennett, a "street waif". [She was probably really a prostitute, but that would go against the strict 1941 Production Code.]
Adapted from a novel by Geoffrey Household and directed by Fritz Lang, MAN HUNT is a taut thriller that plays like an urban version of THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. It is filled with the director's signature images of foreboding dark corners and shadowy streets.
The sharp black-and-white release from 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment has audio commentary by author Patrick McGilligan and a "Making of" featurette.
© Michael B. Druxman
Movie Review: George Sanders is deliciously evil as a Gestapo agent in
Summary: 4 Stars
pre-war Germany. The atmospherics of this Fritz Lang thriller, made in Hollywood, is very Germanic. Walter Pidgeon, the star, on the other hand was rather bland. He's Alan Thorndike, reknown big game hunter, & British gentleman. He's in Germany to kill Hitler. He gets close enough & has Adolf in his crosshairs. He pulls the trigger &... nothing. The gun is empty & game is over. It's pre-war remember? As he is about to leave he is busted by the Gestapo & accused of being a British assassin. He is tortured, confesses nothing. He escapes & now he becomes the prey. With the help of cabin-boy Roddy McDowell, he makes his way back to England on a Danish freighter. Back in London he is befreinded by Jeri, gamely played by Joan Bennett. She's a Cockney "working girl". We know she's not a hooker because she is so nice & heroic, & the censors did not allow that type of behavior from prostitutes. The producers simply place a sewing machine in the background of her flat & presto, she's not. This movie does have a bit of a contrived ending. Then the war begins. The performance of George Sanders is enough to recommend this movie.