Man Hunt is available on Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
Ostensibly known as one of the greatest and most prolific German film directors, Fritz Lang was in point of fact born in Austria. Though of partial Jewish descent, he was raised Catholic and didn’t really reflect too much on his Jewish heritage until it became a focal point for a certain genocidal regime. As a young man, Lang fought for the Austrian army in World War I, took up writing afterward, and then became active in the early German film industry of the silent era. He married his writing partner, Thea von Harbou, and already had several directorial credits and over twenty writing credits, including the science-fiction masterwork Metropolis, under his belt by the time he made his first sound picture, M.
Oh, and he basically created the noir genre.
Even in 1931’s M, we see Lang’s keen social criticism already at work. While M doesn’t deal specifically with Hitler or Nazism, it does clearly depict the madness of mob mentality — the kind of insanity which would indeed grip Germany under Hitler’s reign. A couple years later, Lang released his next feature, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. It was banned in Germany by Joseph Goebbels for promoting anti-government sentiments, which makes what came next even more curious.
According to Lang, Goebbels approached him to become the head of the Nazi film industry, creating propaganda for the German war machine. Sensing that perhaps the writing was on the wall, Lang pretended to go along with this plan but instead fled Germany and found his way to Hollywood. While the veracity of this version of events has been called into question, what we do know is that he turned his cameras against his would-be employers and made several anti-Nazi films. “Fritz Lang Goes To War!” is a multi-part series which discusses this specific body of works, all of which have had new Blu-ray releases within the last couple years.
Man Hunt (1941)
Based on the 1939 novel Rogue Male, 1941’s Man Hunt was greenlit and fast-tracked in a tense time when the US had not yet become embroiled in WWII. It was an incredibly gutsy move by 20th Century Fox to create a film which clearly showed anti-Nazi sentiment in a volatile time. The novel was published just months before war was declared, and the film adaptation similarly was released only months before the United States joined the fight. The film was clearly designed to incite sentiments against Nazi Germany, so in a certain sense it served its purpose in short order.
From a high cliff overlooking the Nazi headquarters at Berchtesgaden, a sniper’s crosshairs center on the figure of Adolph Hitler. How’s that for an opening scene? Now imagine watching this American-made production in 1941, when Hitler is alive and well, and the United States hasn’t quite gotten dragged into World War II just yet.
Perhaps we in 2014 are a bit spoiled by seeing Der Führer ripped to shreds by machine guns in Inglourious Basterds and Wolfenstein, and endlessly lampooned in popular culture. But when Man Hunt screened, it certainly wasn’t any sort of joke, nor was it merely a commentary on current events.
Fritz Lang was personally declaring war on Hitler and the Third Reich.
Before he can pull the trigger, if indeed that was his objective, famed big game hunter Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) is apprehended and brought before Nazi Major Quive-Smith (George Sanders), where he appeals that he was not actually intending to kill the Führer, but simply performing a sporting stalk — that is to say, a test of his own mettle to prove to himself that he could have done it if he wanted to. Thorndike abhors violence (human violence, anyway) and claims he is essentially a pacifist.
In these early scenes in which Thorndike interacts with the Nazis, we see Lang already doing his thing. The German Major is an almost cartoonishly heightened caricature of a Nazi officer: impeccably dressed, possessing of a sharp visage, keen-minded, fierce, and of course fitted with a monocle — obviously with no small amount of self-awareness on the part of Lang, who himself could be described in the same way, even down to the eyepiece.
Ever the master of lighting, Lang uses shadows to underline the fierceness of the Quive-Smith, and also to bring our tortured protagonist into the shot without showing him directly.
Thorndike manages to escape the Nazis and stowaway on a ship back to England, thanks to a cabin boy played by an impossibly young and wide-eyed young Roddy McDowall in his first role.
Returning home to England should have been the end of the ordeal, but in Lang’s noir world of espionage and cloak-and-dagger operations, this simply isn’t to be the case. Like many of his films, Man Hunt is steeped in paranoia with danger around every corner. As Thorndike walks the darkened, foggy streets of London, he realizes he’s being tracked. Even at home, a secret network of spies and sleeper agents are actively undermining national security.
The conspiracy theme is one that we’ll see repeated in Lang’s next films, but another is love. Injecting a shot of positivity into the proceedings is the character of Jerry, a young woman who helps Thorndike. She’s a rough-mannered Cockney-talking gal (a prostitute in the novel, though this detail is excised from the film) whose sassy and unrefined mannerisms strike a sharp contrast to Thorndike’s gentlemanly behavior. The film milks their differences for comedic and dramatic effect — opposites attract, and all that. Even so, there’s a kind of tragedy here as Thorndike never fully commits to this romance, and in trying to keep Jerry safe he inadvertently puts her in harm’s way.
(Here I address the film’s ending, which ties in directly with the theme of this article. Major spoilers are discussed in this paragraph.)
The rest of the film sees Thorndike taking on his aggressors, eventually ending with a showdown with Major Quive-Smith, who has tracked him back to London. The pair engage in a game of wits in which an important truth is learned, and Thorndike breaks his pacifistic stance to deliver a killing blow to his aggressor — a thematically critical point, as Lang wished to wake his audience out of their isolationist attitudes. While our hero emerges victorious, it is not without loss, for he learns that Jerry has been murdered. It seems a strangely sad way for things to end, but Lang wasn’t just telling a story for entertainment purposes — he was inciting rage and mobilizing his viewers against an unjust machine of war and destruction. The film ends on a tonally strange but thematically fitting note: As Europe is caught up by inevitable war, Thorndike resolves to complete his assassination mission from the film’s opening. In the memorable closing scene, he parachutes back into Nazi Germany with his rifle in hand, as the rousing notes of “God Save The Queen” accompany his descent.
Man Hunt was Lang’s bombastic call to action, and in his next films he would continue his crusade against the Nazis.
THE PACKAGE
Man Hunt was released by Twilight Time in August in a limited Blu-Ray release of 3,000 units.
The package includes an 8-page booklet with the usual insightful commentary written by Twilight Time film historian Julie Kirgo.
Special Features
Audio Commentary with Patrick McGilligan Film historian and author of Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast and several other film books. Informative, well-spoken commentary with impressive details on the film and its cast, including random uncredited bit parts. Moreover, the commentary compares and contrasts the film and its source novel, Rogue Male, most notably that Jerry was a prostitute in the novel — a detail removed from the film.
Isolated Score Track
A staple of Twilight Time releases, if sometimes a baffling one. Man Hunt’s minimal score leaves long periods of dead space on this particular track.
Original Theatrical Trailer (1:50)
Rogue Male: The Making Of Man Hunt (16:37)
A great look at the making of the film, mostly in historical terms. Contains commentary by several film critics and historians. Great content, though a bit lackluster in its interlaced 4:3 SD presentation.
A/V Out.
This Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray is available at Screen Archives.
Get it at Amazon:
Man Hunt — [Blu-Ray] | [DVD]
