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Director Fritz Lang's political thriller follows a British hunter's attempts to outrun Nazi agents after he targets Adolf Hitler. While on holiday in Bavaria, willdlife hunter Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) stumbles upon the Fuhrer's country retreat, eventually spotting Hitler in the gardens. After lining up the leader in the crosshairs of his empty rifle, Thorndike is arrested by members of Hitler's Gestapo bodyguard, who try to beat a confession out of him. After eventually escaping and navigating a tortuous route back to Britain, Thorndike is forced to seek help from local seamstress Jerry Stokes (Joan Bennett) when he discovers German agents are hunting him down.
Synopsis
A hunter finds himself in a world of danger when he decides to stalk Adolf Hitler in this taut World War II thriller.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
British officer and renowned big game hunter Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon)literally sets his rifle's sight on Hitler at Berchtesgarten but is foiled by security then tortured by the Gestapo to sign a confession. When he refuses they throw him off of a cliff but his fall is broken and he manages to escape back to England on a tramp steamer where Nazi agents (England and Germany were not at war at the moment)continue to pursue him. Enlisting the assistance of a cockney streetwalker (Joan Bennett) he eludes their grasp until cornered in a cave.This UK region 2 release comes with scene selections and a trailer and the video and audio transfer is clean and crisp.Its easy to see why Fritz Lang is often compared to Hitchcock.Both directors are master story tellers and both use visual techniques which are quite stunning for a film nearly seventy years old.I particularly enjoyed the recreation of foggy London at night,complete with narrow alleways and wet cobbled streets.The scene where a body is dragged along leaving scuffmarks in the carpet is equally brilliant.Lang is also a master of using light in ways other directors only dream of.A great example is the torture scene where all the viewer sees is a shadow of someone in a chair.It gives the scene a more sinister edge and proves you dont always have to graphically show violence to get your message across.The film is tightly directed and moves along at a good clip with Lang using all the tricks he knows.The actors all give credible performances in which the monocled George Sanders plays his Gestapo role of Quives Smith with aplomb,giving his character more depth by playing him bi-lingual is another fine example of Langs ability to avoid such stereotypes of Gestapo agents of this era.... Read more ›
28 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Fritz Lang's version of Geoffrey Household's novel Rogue Male is memorably good and for my money Walter Pidgeon's best role. Beautifully photographed, well acted and directed with pace and economy. Mostly studio bound, it doesn't seem like it is and London's streets have never seemed so sinister and menacing in the fog. The story goes along at a very fair clip, internationally famed big game hunter is caught with Hitler in the sights of his rifle and spends the rest of the film being pursued by Nazis led by sauvely sadistic George Sanders.
There are down sides to the movie; Joan Bennett's cockney accent is pretty awful, as was usually the case in those days, and speaking of cockneys when Pidgeon first arrives back in London he immediately encounters a roving band of pearly kings and queens - not the film's most realistic moment - and Pidgeon himself is gratingly paternalistic and condescending to Bennet, which again was not unnusual for the time. Nevertheless, the film remains engrossing as the great white hunter Pidgeon is stalked by his rival Sanders and his henchmen, including a young and rather handsome John Carradine.
The sound and picture on this print are both excellent, clear and crisp, and I didn't notice any faults in the picture at all. This Region 1 edition also has a good documentary on the making of the film. Despite being almost seventy years old both the film and the print have held up very well. Recommended.
There are down sides to the movie; Joan Bennett's cockney accent is pretty awful, as was usually the case in those days, and speaking of cockneys when Pidgeon first arrives back in London he immediately encounters a roving band of pearly kings and queens - not the film's most realistic moment - and Pidgeon himself is gratingly paternalistic and condescending to Bennet, which again was not unnusual for the time. Nevertheless, the film remains engrossing as the great white hunter Pidgeon is stalked by his rival Sanders and his henchmen, including a young and rather handsome John Carradine.
The sound and picture on this print are both excellent, clear and crisp, and I didn't notice any faults in the picture at all. This Region 1 edition also has a good documentary on the making of the film. Despite being almost seventy years old both the film and the print have held up very well. Recommended.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By miss waspy
Format:DVD
I was about nine when I first saw this on TV, I was scared witless by the fight in the London Underground. Seeing it almost forty years later I suppose you do notice things like Constance Bennet's improbable accent, as a child I thought Pearly Kings and Queens were like Scotsmen in kilts - not THAT unusual - but these B&W films need to be appreciated for what they achieved in their time.
Anyway it starts off with Walter P having a bet with himself as to whether he can get Hitler in the sight of his high powered hunting rifle (he can but being a gent he doesn't shoot) and getting caught on the way back and brought before evil nazi George Sanders. I can't say anymore,being a film about a manhunt rather than a story with a mystery and denouement commenting on it in detail would spoil it. Brilliant end to the manhunt though. If you enjoyed Hitchcock's 39 Steps you'll love this, and, conversely, if you didn't then I wouldn't buy this.
Anyway it starts off with Walter P having a bet with himself as to whether he can get Hitler in the sight of his high powered hunting rifle (he can but being a gent he doesn't shoot) and getting caught on the way back and brought before evil nazi George Sanders. I can't say anymore,being a film about a manhunt rather than a story with a mystery and denouement commenting on it in detail would spoil it. Brilliant end to the manhunt though. If you enjoyed Hitchcock's 39 Steps you'll love this, and, conversely, if you didn't then I wouldn't buy this.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Like you, my dear Thorndike," says Gestapo officer Quive-Smith, "I've had but one passion in life...the hunting of big game."
23 May 2010
Format:DVD
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.... Read more ›
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.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great propaganda, a very good thriller, but below-par Lang
I want to emphasise immediately that this is a great release of Fritz Lang's 1941 thriller, Man Hunt. Read more
Published 6 days ago by Film Buff
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dated, But Effective Thriller
George Sanders is excellent as a Nazi officer who captures Thorndyke (played by a somewhat miscast Walter Pidgeon)and tries to get him to confess to an attempted assassination of... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Blackadder
3.0 out of 5 stars
Older Version Of a Great Book.
Based on the Geoffrey Household novel "Rogue Male" the film alters some of the parts and is not, in my opinion as good as the BBC TV adaptation with Peter O'Toole, made in... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. A. M. Hutchings
5.0 out of 5 stars
B & W classic !
I read this book back in about 1970 and really enjoyed it (Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household - if you're a reader get it, very engrossing) but had only seen parts of it on TV as a... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. M
4.0 out of 5 stars
All aboard the Piccadilly Line
Captain Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) is captured trying to assassinate Hitler and somehow escapes back to Britain where he is pursued by a gang of Nazis including Major Quive-Smith... Read more
Published on 6 May 2011 by Alex da Silva
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pidgeon hunt turns into a turkey shoot
The attitude "One shouldn't speak ill of the dead" seems to inform much of "classic" movie criticism, but it's hard not to be massively disappointed by Man Hunt, no matter what... Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2011 by O. Buxton
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