Man Hunt (1941 film)

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 rifle goes off in their struggle.

After being beaten, Thorndike is taken to Major Quive-Smith, who is also a devoted hunter and an admirer. Thorndike explains that he was not trying to kill, but did it just as a "sporting stalk", purely 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 as an assassin 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 nearby ship. British cabin boy Vaner helps Thorndike hide aboard. The Germans find Thorndike's coat and passport aboard the rowboat and search the nearby Danish-registered vessel. Though they find nothing, they place an agent on board the London-bound freighter using Thorndike's passport to impersonate him.

The agent is met by German confederates in London. Thorndike, mistakenly believing he is safe, casually disembarks and is spotted. He manages to hide in the apartment of a young woman named 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 it isn't, and that she take it. 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, Farnsworthy, the Nazis are once again on his trail. Chased into a London Underground station, Thorndike struggles with the agent, who is killed when he is thrown onto an electrified rail. The dead man, mutilated beyond recognition by a subsequent train, is identified by his papers as Thorndike; the real Thorndike, identified as the murderer while leaving the station, is then subjected to a manhunt by British police.

Thorndike tells Jerry to have Lord Risborough send him a letter in three weeks to the care of the Lyme Regis post office, then flees London for more secure cover. Thorndike hides in a cave, but alarms the local postmistress when he tries to pick up the letter. He grabs it and retreats to his cave, where he finds it 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, 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 her. 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 and waits to shoot Thorndike as he crawls out. However, Thorndike uses his belt and a slat from his bed to fabricate a bow, then a stick and the pin from Jerry's hat as 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 is well underway.

Thorndike joins the Royal Air Force as a Bomber Command crewman. On a mission over Germany, he parachutes out with his hunting rifle, intending to assassinate Hitler.

• 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)

Man Hunt became the first war film to attract the attention of the Hays Office in the neutral United States. Joseph Breen was alarmed by the script, calling it a "hate film".^[5] Breen felt that in the isolationist atmosphere of the 1941 U.S., the film showed all Germans as evil, unlike other films that depicted both good non-Nazi Germans as well as evil Nazis. Breen insisted that the Germans should not be characterised as being so brutal and that the office would pass the film only if it would "indicate" brutality rather than show it. As a result, Thorndike's torture was not shown, but the idea was made apparent to the audience.^[5]

Darryl F. Zanuck was also worried about Lang's anti-Nazi enthusiasm and banned him from the editing room. However, Lang and his associate Gene Fowler, Jr. secretly edited the film without Zanuck's approval.^[6]

Isolationists and Nazi sympathizers took issue with the film, along with That Hamilton Woman (1941) and others, describing such films as pro-British propaganda to change American public opinion about going to war.^[7]

The film features an instrumental version of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" by Eric Maschwitz, Manning Sherwin and Jack Strachey as a recurring romantic theme. The score's recurring theme for the Nazis was composed by the film's musical director Alfred Newman.

Bosley Crowther, writing for The New York Times in June 1941, commented that "Man Hunt rates somewhat above the run of ordinary 'chase' films" projecting "certain subtle psychological overtones", but "it doesn't fulfill its possibilities completely".^[8] Dave Kehr reviewing a DVD release in the same publication in 2009, commented "as agitprop the film could not be more effective", but "it also has the timeless quality of a work of pure imagination".^[9]

The Academy Film Archive preserved Man Hunt in 2000.^[10]

Man Hunt was presented on Philip Morris Playhouse July 31, 1942, starring Robert Montgomery.^[11]

• Rogue Male, the 1976 BBC television version of Household's novel
• Operation Foxley, a British Special Operations Executive plan to assassinate Hitler in 1944

• Man Hunt at IMDb
• Man Hunt at AllMovie
• Man Hunt at the TCM Movie Database
• Man Hunt at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Man Hunt review at Mystery*File (David L. Vineyard)
• Man Hunt DVD review, The New York Times, May 15, 2009 (Dave Kehr)