Man Hunt (1941)
Man Hunt is a 1941 American thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Walter Pidgeon and Joan Bennett. It is based on the 1939 novel Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household and is set in Europe just prior to the Second World War. Lang had fled Germany into exile in 1933 and this was the first of his four anti-Nazi films, which include Ministry of Fear, Hangmen Also Die!, and Cloak and Dagger.
Director – Fritz Lang
Writers – Geoffrey Household (novel “Rogue Male”), Dudley Nichols (screenplay), Lamar Trotti (contract writer)
Cast –
Walter Pidgeon as Captain Thorndike
Joan Bennett as Jerry Stokes
George Sanders as Quive-Smith
John Carradine as Mr. Jones
Roddy McDowall as Vaner
Ludwig Stössel as the doctor
Heather Thatcher as Lady Risborough
Frederick Worlock as Lord Risborough
Roger Imhof as Captain Jensen
Egon Brecher as the jeweler
Lester Matthews as the major
Holmes Herbert as Saul Farnsworthy
Eily Malyon as the postmistress
Arno Frey as the police lieutenant
Frederick Vogeding as ambassador
Wilhelm von Brincken as the harbor police chief
Cyril Delevanti as the cab driver (uncredited)
Olaf Hytten as Piel, Saul’s law clerk (uncredited)
Watch “Man Hunt” (1941)
Plot
On July 29, 1939, renowned British big-game hunter Captain Alan Thorndike slips through the forest undetected near the Berghof, Adolf Hitler’s residence near Berchtesgaden. With Hitler in his telescopic sight, he pulls the trigger on his unloaded rifle and gives a wave. He ponders a moment, then loads a live round, but is discovered at the last second by a guard, and the shot goes wide.
After being beaten, Thorndike is taken to Major Quive-Smith, who is also a devoted hunter and an admirer of Thorndike. Thorndike explains that he was not trying to kill, but did it just for the thrill of going after the biggest game of all. The major is unsure whether to believe him and insists that he sign a confession that he was working for the British government. When Thorndike refuses, he is tortured, but remains steadfast and warns of “questions being asked in high places” if he is killed, as his brother Lord Risborough is a very important diplomat. Quive-Smith arranges to have Thorndike pushed off a cliff to make his death look like suicide.
Thorndike survives when his knapsack gets caught in a tree, breaking his fall. He eludes his pursuers and reaches a port. He steals a rowing boat, but is forced to abandon it when a patrol boat comes near. He swims to a Danish ship about to sail for London. British cabin boy Vaner helps Thorndike hide aboard. The Germans find Thorndike’s coat and passport aboard the rowboat and search the nearby ship. Though they find nothing, they place agent Mr. Jones on board using Thorndike’s passport to continue searching after the ship departs.
Jones is met by German agents in London. Thorndike, mistakenly believing he is safe, casually disembarks and is spotted. He manages to hide in the apartment of a young woman called Jerry Stokes who lends him money so that he can reach his brother.
When Lord Risborough tells his brother that the British government, continuing its pre-war policy of appeasement, would have to extradite him if he were found, Thorndike decides to hide in Africa. Jerry tries to refuse a large reward, leading Lady Risborough to assume that it is payment for other services, but Thorndike insists. He also buys her a new hatpin, as she had lost hers when they first met. She chooses a cheap chromium arrow and insists that Thorndike present it to her. Thorndike likens it to her, saying both are “straight and shiny”. By this point, Jerry is in love.
Quive-Smith arrives in London to join the hunt. When Thorndike calls on his solicitor, Saul Farnsworthy, the Nazis are once again on his trail. Chased into a London Underground station, Thorndike struggles with Jones, who is killed when he is thrown onto an electrified rail.
Thorndike tells Jerry to have Lord Risborough send him a letter in three weeks to the care of the Lyme Regis post office. Thorndike hides in a cave, but then tries to pick up the letter, alarming the postmistress. Thorndike grabs the letter and retreats back to his cave, where he finds that the letter is from Quive-Smith, who has followed him to his lair.
Quive-Smith seals the only entrance and passes Thorndike the confession and a pen through an airhole, threatening to leave him trapped inside. Quive-Smith slides in Jerry’s beret with the arrow pin, informing Thorndike that she was thrown out a window to her death when she would not betray him. The Germans found him by using the address that Thorndike had written for Jerry. Badgered by Quive-Smith, Thorndike finally admits that he subconsciously intended to assassinate Hitler. He then agrees to sign the confession. Quive-Smith unblocks the entrance, but waits to shoot Thorndike as he crawls out. However, Thorndike uses his belt, a slat from his bed and a stick to fabricate a bow, using Jerry’s pin as the tip of a makeshift arrow, and shoots Quive-Smith through the airhole. When Thorndike emerges, Quive-Smith wounds him before dying. By the time Thorndike recovers, the war has started.
Thorndike joins the Royal Air Force as a Bomber Command crewman. On a mission over Germany, he parachutes out with his hunting rifle.