Directed By: Fritz Lang
Written By: Dudley Nichols
Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennet, George Sanders
Synopsis: British hunter Captain Thorndike vacationing in Bavaria has Hitler in his gun sight. He is captured, beaten, left for dead, and escapes back to London where he is hounded by German agents and aided by a young woman.
Man Hunt was one of Frtiz Lang’s first features after fleeing Nazi Germany for America in the 1930s. Lang was fearful for his life due to his Jewish heritage, even though it was reported that Hitler was a huge admirer of his work, particularly Metropolis. Once in Hollywood, and free of the Nazi censorship that had banned his earlier work The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Lang decided to put his vitriolic hatred of Nazi Germany to film.
The film, based on the novel Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household, begins with English big game hunter Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) lying on a ridge somewhere in the German countryside with Adolf Hitler in the cross-hairs of his rifle. Thorndike takes a practice shot at the dictator, squeezing the trigger with his gun unloaded. He then loads his gun, but before he can pull off a shot he is captured by German soldiers patrolling the area. Thorndike is taken as prisoner and cross examined by Gestapo agent Major Quive Smith (George Sanders,) who offers to grant Thorndike his freedom if he will sign a confession that he was sent as an assassin by the British. Thorndike refuses knowing that this is untrue and that the political consequences would be disastrous if he were to sign such a document. Later he manages to escape and stow aboard a ship bound for England; setting up the 'man hunt' that gives the film its name.
Despite not being on the level of previous Lang masterpieces such as Metropolis and M, there is still much to enjoy here. There are numerous scenes where the tension is really ratcheted up, including one where Thorndike is chased through a deserted London underground by one of his undercover Nazi pursuers. Lang also takes his time, with long tracking shots and extended periods without dialogue. Examples of both these can be seen in the opening scene where the wandering camera seems to accidentally discover Thorndike amongst the bushes (much like the German Patrol guards moments later,) and the film must get to around the fifteen minute mark without a word being said in English.
Other good points come from George Sanders who nails his role as the scheming Gestapo agent tasked with tracking down Pidgeon's Thorndike character. He brings just the right amount evil and camp to create a character which has had obvious influence throughout World War II cinema, Christoph Waltz's 'Jew Hunter' character in Inglourious Basterds being a prime recent example. Sanders is a menace throughout the entirety of the film and comes into his own in the dramatic climatic scene.
While Sanders flourishes in playing the villain of the piece, Pidgeon somewhat struggles to make his hero character likeable. The air of arrogance he brings to the role makes Thorndike’s character difficult to sympathise with and at times. His relationship, which develops once Thorndike finds his way back to England, with the working class English girl Jerry Stokes (Joan Bennet) seems entirely forced and unnatural. Thorndike seems to take himself so seriously that it's a mystery why he'd fall for a girl as air headed as Bennet's Jerry. Bennet also struggles along with a truly stereotypical mockney accent but most of her problems come from the script which paints her as the typical American caricature of a young English city girl and gives her such jarring lines as ‘Aint you never heard of fish and chips?’
With their various similarities it’s hard at the midway point of this film, once Pidgeon and Bennet have established their relationship, to not compare the film to Hitchcock’s 39 Steps, which came out a few years prior. Hitchcock’s film comes off far better in the comparison due to the fact that his leads were far more charming and the interaction between the two was far more believable.
Lang’s film also suffers from being a bit heavy handed in its depiction of Germany, with each German character being sly and underhand. In fact he was so scathing in his depiction of Germans that the film had to undergo cuts to be released in the US, who were still not a part of WWII until a number of months after the film’s release and the US were at this point reluctant to position themselves as Hitler’s enemy. While no one could claim that Metropolis and M were particularly subtle in their depiction of the director’s feelings, they don’t really come close to the heavy handedness of Man Hunt which at times comes across as little more than a propaganda film. This is particularly evident with the closing of the film being a shot of armed forces being parachuted into Germany. Having said that the film is certainly worth seeking out just to see Lang’s handling of suspenseful scenes, a talent that would lead him to go on and become a renowned director of noire films in the years after this release.
