Manhunt (1941)

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Movie
German title Manhunt
Original title Man Hunt
Country of production United States
original language English
German
Publishing year 1941
length 100 minutes
Rod
Director Fritz Lang
script Dudley Nichols
production Kenneth Macgowan
music Alfred Newman
camera Arthur C. Miller
cut Allen McNeil
occupation

Manhunt is an American political thriller by Fritz Lang with propagandistic, anti-Nazi undertones from 1941.

action

Summer 1939. Not far from Adolf Hitler's Berghof near Berchtesgaden , the passionate British big game hunter Alan Thorndike is lying in the alpine woods, the "guide" in the crosshairs of his unloaded rifle. He aims and pulls the trigger. It “clicks”. Thorndike laughs briefly and scornfully "greets" Hitler with a wave of his hand. Then an idea occurs to him: How about if he shot Hitler? Thorndike loads a cartridge and aims again. A leaf falls on the barrel of his gun and again delays the attack for a few seconds. When Thorndike berths for the third time, a guard posted for Hitler's security rushes at him from behind. The shot goes off uncontrollably.

Thorndike falls into German captivity and is shown to Major Quive-Smith, like Thorndike an avid hunter. He interrogates him, initially gentlemanly, from hunter to hunter, so to speak. Thorndike explains that he only aimed at Hitler out of "sporting ambition" but never intended to kill him. Quive-Smith then asked Thorndike to sign a declaration that Thorndike had received an order from the British government to murder Hitler. When he refuses this request and makes fun of Hitler, he is led out of the room and tortured. Thorndike threatens serious political consequences if he dies, as his brother, Lord Risborough, is a senior diplomat. Quive-Smith then decides to take him away and let him knock him off a rock. It's supposed to look like a fatal accident involving a mountain hiker. But Thorndike's satchel gets caught in a tree and slows down his fall.

Thorndike escapes from Germany and, with the help of the English cabin boy Vaner, sets off on a Danish ship for her British homeland. But the Gestapo is him in the person of the ominous "Mr. Jones “close on his heels, following his every step. In London, Jones meets with German agents and discusses the next steps, while Thorndike is staying in the apartment of the young, attractive Jerry Stokes. She lends him money and promises to help him. Thorndike wants to meet his brother first to tell him about the events in Germany. Because of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy , Thorndike is threatened with extradition to the German Reich and plans to flee to Africa. More and more, Jerry proves to be a real support, and they both fall in love.

Quive-Smith has meanwhile arrived in London to lead the “manhunt” on Thorndike. Thorndike is caught by Jones in a London Underground station and a fight ensues in which Jones dies when he falls onto the live rails. Since Jones entered the UK with Thorndike's passport, the dead person is mistaken for Thorndike. Jerry and Thorndike split up temporarily; a separation that both find very difficult. Thorndike goes into hiding in a cave near the tranquil coastal town of Lyme Regis , where he is safer than in London, which is riddled with German agents. There he wants to wait three weeks until Jerry sends him a letter stating whether the air is clear by now. However, Quive-Smith is already waiting for her in Jerry's apartment. When Thorndike leaves the cave three weeks later to intercept Jerry's letter, he is horrified to discover that the letter is from Quive-Smith instead. This follows him to his hiding place and locks the entrance. Thorndike is trapped now. Only a tiny hole allows communication between Thorndike and his pursuer.

Quive-Smith tries to deceive Thorndike and claims that Jerry “jumped” out the window, probably not entirely voluntarily, because she did not want to give out his address. Deeply shocked and angry at the same time, Thorndike finally admits that Hitler actually wanted to kill at the time and promises to sign a corresponding declaration. But Thorndike just wants to buy time with it. The time it takes Quive-Smith to uncover the entrance again, the prisoner in the cave is working on a makeshift weapon. Major Quive-Smith, in turn, intends to finish off Captain Thorndike for good immediately after the signing. But he gets ahead of him and kills Quive-Smith with his hastily crafted bow and arrow. Thorndike is also wounded with a shot from the weapon of the dying Quive-Smith.

The war has now broken out, and Captain Thorndike reports to the Royal Air Force to do what he failed to do in the summer of 1939. He jumps over Germany with a parachute and a first-class rifle.

Production notes

The first performance of manhunt took place on June 13, 1941, around six months before the USA entered the war. In large parts of Europe, the film only opened shortly after the end of the war in May 1945.

The film was based on the novel Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household.

The Filmbauten submitted by Richard Day and Wiard you , the equipment took over Thomas Little .

In some scenes in which George Sanders gives instructions to his subordinates or plays chess with Ludwig Stössel, he speaks German in the original version.

Due to instructions from the Hays Code , scenes in which Captain Thorndike is tortured had to be defused. Now from the off you can only hear his painful groaning and see his silhouette while the camera is pointing at Sanders.

A remake of this material was made in 1977 under the template title Rogue Male for British television. The Pidgeon role was taken over by Peter O'Toole , whose character here has a different name (Robert Hunter).

criticism

Contemporary and later reviews praised the film for its intensity and numerous moments of tension.

The Lexicon of International Films wrote: “The story is of course made up, but it is very clever and logical. […] A Fritz Lang film from 1941: excitingly staged, with a sometimes oppressive real atmosphere, also above average in terms of performance ”.

The Movie & Video Guide wrote: “Farfetched yet absorbing drama of man attempting to kill Hitler, getting into more trouble than he bargained for. Tense, well-done ”.

Halliwell's Film Guide characterized the film as follows: "Despite hilarously inaccurate English backgrounds, this is perhaps it's director's most vivid Hollywood thriller, though watered down in tone from the original novel".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Das Lexikon des Internationale Films, Volume 5, p. 2565, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1987
  2. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 818
  3. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 643