A Movie Nearly Every Night: Man Hunt

Man Hunt (1941)
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine

Well, would you?

Big game hunter with some time on your hands in Bavaria ... why not? It's 1939. You know who this guy is. No one likes him -- well, a lot of Germans like him, but most people think he's got crazy ideas and is amassing enough power to carry them out. You've got a pretty good bead on him. Are you going to pull the trigger?

Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) does, but there's no bullet. He thinks better of it and slides a shell into the chamber, but doesn't get in the shot before the Gestapo takes him in to get grilled by Nazi interrogator Quive-Smith (George Sanders). Shot in fantastic evil key lighting, just a tip of it to highlight his monocle, Quive-Smith calls bullshit (or the Nazi equivalent) on Thorndike's excuse that it was just "a sporting stalk" and gives Thorndike the option of release if he signs a confession stating that the British government put him up to assassination.

Menacing Quive-Smith interrogates shadowy Thorndike

Of course, Thorndike is, he is, an E-e-e-e-EEEEE-nglish-mannnnn, so he won't sign. Quive-Smith allows him the opportunity for an "accident" and Thorndike uses it as a chance to escape. He gets back to England, but even there, in the relative safety of his own country, he's hunted down by Quive-Smith and other sundry Nazis, some with more persistence than others.

"Mr. Jones" follows Thorndike underground

There's a lot of Fritz-design in this story --- the close up of dogs nipping at Thorndike's (somewhat distant but implied) rear-end as he escapes Nazi Germany, Quive-Smith's monocle, long shots of deep spaces and great geometric balance --- but there are also a lot of interesting ideas about patriotism and bravery, that could only come from a guy who stands on the outside looking in. If this had been an English film, it would have been much different: everyone would be doing their part, everyone would be true to their Allied and proper government. But it's an American film by a German director and while there's a noisy jingo ending tacked on to the film, there are still a lot of questions raised about who is doing the hunting and why.

We start with Thorndike stalking Hitler, but he's not really going to kill him -- or is he? He puts a shell in the chamber, but is that right or wrong? If it's as right as we think it is, why does he try to hide it? Why doesn't he brave-English come right out and say "Yes, I wanted to take a shot at Hitler"? Then, when he gets back to England, he's pursued through the docks and the underground -- working class locations, although he's clearly a wealthy man with no profession and a lot of leisure time for stalking big game around the world. So he's hunted in his habitat, like an elephant or a lion, but he's out of his element within that habitat, like a tiger in Africa. Not only that, but apparantly the other animals on the safari may help you and they may be looking out for their own skin. Is Jerry (Joan Bennett) helping him or herself? She cries because he won't sleep with her even though she doesn't know anything about him. Could she be one of the Nazis? That arrow in the hat is really obvious. What about Thorndike's wealthy diplomat brother (Frederick Worlock)? He's actually makes things worse for his brother and doesn't seem to care what happens to him or the country.

Thorndike himself is something of an enigma. We don't know if he's brave or foolhardy. But when they catch up to him, when the big game is cornered --- not a shot in the open, not a chance for escape, but well and truly trapped --- that's when we see what he's really made of.

By the way, was Walter Pidgeon ever young?

Fritz lowers the space, squeezes Thorndike into this hole with only an air vent to provide lighting and Thorndike cracks. I've never seen Walter Pidgeon really let loose before and it's shocking. This isn't Mr. Miniver or Mr. Gruffydd or any of the stoic, solid Englishmen he usually played. This is more Ray Milland's territory and if it had been Ray maybe it would have lost it's edge a little. With Walter Pidgeon each time his voice breaks or his body bends with the weight of his frantic shouting you feel it shutter through you. As hunter, he's somewhat confident; as prey with nowhere to go he's a crazy mess.

Does this mean that unless we're winning we're not really brave? We have ingenuity, but first we have hysteria? Maybe that's why the ending was tacked on after all. Maybe it's the studio's way of saying that after you go through hell you find that courage to face the front again ... or maybe you just reach a point where you don't care anymore.