Man Hunt

Shortly before the war. The British hunter Alan Thorndike is on holiday in Bavaria and looks down from a hill. He raises his glass and sees a man in the garden of a house: the leader of Germany. He levels his rifle. He aims with an empty chamber and pulls the trigger; then he loads a round. He is caught at that moment. He is interrogated and asked for one thing: to sign a statement that he did it on behalf of the British government. He refuses. He escapes and reaches London; those after him come too. Fritz Lang directs. Walter Pidgeon plays Thorndike and George Sanders the officer pursuing him. The source is Geoffrey Household's novel. The film was made before the war reached America and is among the few productions of the time that took a side openly. Lang was a director who had left Germany and the film's political stance was tied directly to his position. The real question it builds is intent; did the man actually mean to kill, and he is not sure himself. The London sections were built in the studio and the chase in the underground tunnel is its most cited part. Because of the censorship rules of the period, the profession of the character played by Joan Bennett is given without being stated. The ending carries a direct appeal. Who it is for: viewers who like classic thrillers and Lang's American period. Who it is not for: the propaganda register is plain, some sections look studio built, and the ending states its message openly.