A hunter finds himself in a world of danger when he decides to stalk Adolf Hitler in this taut WWII thriller. Capt. Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) is an expert big-game hunter from England. While hunting in Bavaria, he happens upon Hitler's Berchtesgaden estate and spots the Fuhrer; he has his rifle in tow, and he toys with the idea of firing at the dictator, even raising the unloaded weapon, putting Hitler in the crosshairs, and pulling the trigger to make the gun click. Unfortunately, this draws
the attention of Maj. Quive-Smith (George Sanders), a Gestapo leader assigned to guard the Führer, who promptly apprehends Thorndike, drags him off and attempts to force him to sign a confession. When he refuses, he's brutally beaten and dumped into a hole in the woods, and must climb out and make his way to safety, by hiding as a stowaway on a Danish steamer. The poor fellow then runs afoul of the menacing Mr. Jones (John Carradine), who steals his passport and identity. By the time Thorndike returns to London, the hunter has become the hunted, with Gestapo agents combing the streets looking for the would-be assassin. Man Hunt was directed by Fritz Lang, the great German director who fled to Paris in 1933 rather than accept a commission from Joseph Goebbels to make Nazi propaganda films. He came to America the following year. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
In 'Man Hunt,' tracking shots are literally tracking shots: When Lang's camera glides, it's in pursuit of a quarry, as if it were participating in what the movie's hero refers to as 'a sporting stalk.'
Fritz Lang's WWII spy drama about a British hunter who stalks Hitler is sharply written by ace scribe Dudley Nichols and well acted by Walter Pidgeon in the lead and George Sanders in the supporting role of the Nazi chief who pursues him.
Compact well directed drama of the dawning realization of the Nazi threat in Europe. A noir before that was a popular genre. Pidgeon handles his role well, moving from the lighter tone at the start of the film to the serious one later on. Joan Bennett is a breezy delight as a practitioner of the world's oldest
profession. She did some of her best work in Lang films, he was a tough director but she was herself a straight shooter who had no problem giving as good as she got enabling them to work well together through four films.
April 20, 2010
jay nixon
Super Reviewer
Man Hunt is an earlier American Fritz Lang film that I'm also guessing is one of his most personal. Walter Pidgeon plays a famous British big game hunter who could have easily taken out Hitler. He's captured and his escape escalates, leaving the possibility of international ramifications almost imminent. Walter Pidgeon
plays the man on the run and George Sanders is his adversary. Both are great here as is a baby Roddy McDowell. Joan Bennett's definitely easy on the eyes but her cockney accent made me want to forcibly remove my eardrums from my goddamned head, almost driving me as nuts as the dynamic between Pidgeon and Bennett. It's Joan Bennett! You ask if you can drink her bath water, you don't talk to her like she's your sister's kid! What the hell's wrong with you!?!? Lang's direction is often eerie and noirish and was a nice precursor to the other films he'd make with Bennett, Scarlett Street and Woman in the Window.
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