Man Hunt (1941)

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

British hunter Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) 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.Generally speaking, I think Fritz Lang went downhill after coming to America. His German films are classics, and remain hugely inspirational and influential. The American films, a mix of war, crime and noir, are more of a mixed bag.This film is quite good, and is a bit brave. We open with a hunter contemplating the murder of a foreign leader. That is quite a strong visual (assassination of an actual rather than fictional leader). And even more so because America was neutral at the time -- not that Hitler was thought of as a good guy, but he was not officially our enemy (yet).

Opinions on this Fritz Lang Pre-War Film Vary a great deal. Robert Osborne, a Host on TCM and Film Historian, called it Lang's Best American Film. Wow. That is Highly Debatable, but makes the point.The Movie has many Lang Touches with some Outstanding Scenes, but the Overall Tone of the Movie is Inconsistent. The Chase Sequences and Suspense Pieces are almost Overwhelmed by the Goofy Upper Class-Street Girl Patronizing and Giddiness.Joan Bennett's Panting and Crying really Grates the Nerves and Stops the Movie's Momentum a number of times. Walter Pidgeon is Miscast but Manages what He can. George Sanders and John Carradine as Nazis are also Inconsistent, Especially Sanders.The Highlights of the Movie all come from Lang's use of Trademark Expressionism but are Ultimately Undone by Fish and Chips and Bennet's constant Begging for Thorndike's Attention. Overall, there are Enough Lang Flourishes and the Story is certainly One for the Times and Tapped into a Fantasy that Continued even After the War was Over. You know, that Hypothetical, "If You could go back in time and assassinate Hitler", etc.Not the Best American Film from Fritz Lang but a Good Entertainment with the Subject Matter, especially in the Time Frame when it was Made (Pre-War), adds to the Appeal.

For me the central point of what is a multifaceted movie is one of ethics. Captain Thorndike is a big game hunter of repute who never shoots his prey, he gets it in his sights and then recognises that he's "won the game". He's essentially an anarchist in that he talks at several points about being against all forms of force (politically speaking some types of anarchists generally talk in terms of the path of least coercion). He is faced with a decision, which fortunately, few of us in the country where most of this film is shot (the UK), have to make any more. When one is faced with extreme murderous brutality (the Nazis), extinguishing personal freedoms, should one fight back with lethal force? People have called this aspect of the movie propagandist, a manipulative attempt to get the USA to join the war, but I think Fritz Lang poses this question in earnest and with his heart on his sleeve. Despite our distance from questions of such magnitude (the war against operations such as Al Qaeda has effectively been assigned to bureaus or outsourced, and do not ask these questions of us on an individual basis), it's a question which I found very involving.Fritz Lang's movie has in common with Powell & Pressburger's film from the same year, the 49th Parallel, that both treatments of the Nazis display a great deal of respect, leaving you to question on some level whether they don't deserve to win. Thorndike is both a rank below, and Lang suggests, an inferior hunter to, his nemesis the Nazi Major Quive-Smith. Only by breaking through British class barriers and finding love will Thorndike be able to triumph. Reference is made to the policy of appeasement and to appallingly stupid British officialdom, more evidence of a movie which is far from a stupid and absurdly partisan propaganda piece.Some of the movie comes off as a little odd, such as a repeated reference to the Nazis returning to decapitation as method of execution, which seems rather a minutia given that the UK and US were both hugely fond of capital punishment at the time. The love story creaks a bit and makes the middle of the movie somewhat of a longueur. Contrivances in the plot are acceptable, but may cross a threshold for some.On an aesthetic and visceral level there are some great tracking shots, and the Nazis have been appropriately fetishised. Popular modern belief that behind each swastika there was a caring sharing yet misguided person is hugely erroneous, death-worshipping pagans, members of what was a hugely ideological cult, being more accurate in my view. The shot of Quive-Smith and goons in Jerry's apartment is high-calibre work reminiscent of the expressionist silent work of the director's earlier years. Personally I found the fist fight hugely brutal and exhilarating, which is very rare in a movie of that period, or indeed any other. In terms of a "...from hell's heart I stab at thee" level of gusto, the ending of the movie is as electrifying as the famous ending to 13 Rue Madeleine.By the by Quive-Smith is an enormously interesting character. There's huge testament to Lang's subtlety in the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest) scene. An outwardly confident character with no hint of turmoil stands next to a lampshade where votive music in Old German is written, "...nur deine güt hilft, mir aus den nöthen." ("... only you can help me out of my suffering"). In the next scene he is backgrounded by a sculpture of Saint Sebastian pierced through with arrows. This a wounded man, in need of putting out of his misery. Lang's suggestion regarding Nazis generally? Obviously a man of genius who snuck a lot of stuff about fate in under the radar.

Walter Pidgeon (Captain Thorndike) is captured trying to assassinate Hitler and somehow escapes back to Britain where he is pursued by a gang of Nazis including George Sanders (Major Quive-Smith). Pidgeon is helped along the way by Roddy McDowell (Vaner) and Joan Bennett (Jerry). However, we eventually get to the confrontation between Sanders and Pidgeon. Can these two men make a deal with each other...? I enjoyed this film despite the story being a load of nonsense. Thorndike would have just been killed at the beginning of the film. However, the writers manage to contrive a situation so that he can escape. The cast are all likable and this wins over actually being any good. A case in point is Joan Bennett - she puts on a terrible cockney accent but she wins us over coz she's likable and it comes as a shock when we hear about what happens to her. It makes the scene where Bennett and Pidgeon walk away from each other on a foggy London bridge one of the more poignant and memorable scenes of the film. As for Pidgeon, why on earth is he the lead playing an Englishman? It doesn't matter, though coz he's likable and he has a determined character transformation at the end of the film.The story has some good sequences (eg, the chase on the London Underground and the game of cat and mouse in the cave), but it also drags a bit once the platonic romance is introduced. There is quite a lot of humour during these moments but a real prostitute would have just shagged the guy, taken his money and said goodbye. I'm not wholly convinced as to why she would want to follow him around so much. Overall, it's an entertaining film that is worth seeing again.