Pretty Good

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Fantastic!

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

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).

It's 1939, a little before the World War II.British captain Alan Thorndike is in Bavaria, when suddenly he gets Adolf Hitler in his gunsight.He doesn't try to kill him, but he gets captured.He gets to flee to London, but he's not safe even there.Man Hunt (1941) is a wartime thriller from Fritz Lang.This was the first of four anti-Nazi pictures of this Jewish director, who fled Germany into exile in the mid 1930's.The movie is based on Geofrey Household's 1939 novel Rogue Male.Walter Pidgeon gives a terrific performance in the lead.Joan Bennett is wonderful as the female lead Jerry.George Sanders makes a great villain as Major Quive-Smith.John Carradine is great as Mr. Jones.Roddy McDowall is marvelous as Vaner.There are many exciting moments in this movie, like the events in the subway tunnel.How the boy helps Alan on the ship is pretty touching.Also the love story portrayed there is really sweet.

The movie had all the elements which could have made it one of the greatest thriller of all time. Daring assassination attempt which could lead a continent into a war, thrilling escapades, cunning secret service agents following the trails of the wanted. Lang with his natural brilliance in this genre captivates the audience from the very first scene itself. However, unfortunately the taut suspense that the movie builds slacks through the introduction of the romantic angle in the movie. The romantic interludes slows the pace and acts as a dampener. If the screenplay could have pared these excesses of romantic interludes or could have integrated the same in a better way with the main narration of the film, this film could have become, as I said in the beginning, one of the greatest thrillers of all time.

Man Hunt (1941) *** (out of 4) Entertaining but severely flawed thriller about big-game hunter Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) who crosses over to Germany and hunts down Hitler. He has the evil man in his rifle range but when he pulls the trigger it's a blank. He's eventually captured and beaten but he swears that he had no intent on actually killing the man. He manages to escape but Major Quive Smith (George Sanders) is soon on his trail as is a hired killer (John Carradine). It's important to remember that at the time of this film's release American had yet to join WW2 so there's a lot of talk here, which is clearly meant to build up spirits for when our country did join. The ending is certainly preaching but this isn't the downside of the film. The real downside happens when Thorndike meets a young woman (Joan Bennett) who insists on following him on his journey. Up until this point the film has some nice tension building up and after her character is out of the way we get back to that tension but I must say that this added romance was downright bad and really kept this film from being much better. The biggest problem I had is that I could never make heads or tails of why it was included in the first place. There's really no "love" story being told and there's really no point in having her along for the ride as it appears the main reason she's here is for comedy relief and there aren't any laughs. Her character is so annoying that you can't help but wish she'd just go away and why she was given such a big part in the story is beyond me. Outside of that we're left with a pretty good thriller with some excellent performances and tight direction. Pidgeon is perfect as the hero who refuses to sell out his country to save his own life. I thought the character went through quite a few changes in the film and the actor perfectly handled the material. Sanders easily steals the film as the evil SOB tracking him down and you can't help but feel as if you're hearing someone who really was behind the evil wishes of Hitler. Sanders is so cold and stern in the part that you can't help but love to hate him. Carradine offers up his typical fine performance and we get Roddy McDowall, Frederick Worlock and Roger Imhof in nice supporting bits. Bennett didn't work for me but this had more to do with the screenplay and not her performance. The final moments take place inside a cave and makes for some wonderful tension but I won't ruin what happens. MAN HUNT is certainly worth watching due to the cast and Lang's direction but I can't help but feel a little disappointed that it's not better. Had the film stayed focused on the tension and left the romance somewhere else then we'd have had a much better film.