The Manxman (1929)
Country: GB
Technical: bw 83m silent
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Anny Ondra, Carl Brisson, Malcolm Keen
Synopsis:
On the Isle of Man two friends, a fisherman and a rising lawyer, are in love with the publican's daughter, but when the former plights his troth and goes abroad to make his fortune, he leaves her in the protective care of his pal. Gradually the girl falls for the judge-to-be, the fisherman returns and marries her unwitting, and the stage is set for an anguished and scandalous dénouement.
Review:
Actually a remake of a 1917 film, this at first sight untypical Hitchcock melodrama has a number of factors to commend it. Partly shot on location in Cornwall, it uses interiors (pub, cottage, chambers) effectively to underline the dynamics of a given scene; the lives of the little folk at one point resembles the subject matter of Visconti's La Terra Trema, leading some to bandy terms like 'proto-neo-realist', despite there being few other neo-realist features to the plot. More persuasively, the plight of the star-crossed triangle, torn between love and duty and loyalty to the baby, is movingly conveyed by Ondra, Brisson and, to a lesser extent, the more wooden Keen. There are a couple of Hitchcock touches (though no personal appearance) in a shot of the publican bearing menacingly down on the camera, and a dissolve of the harbour's murky depths into which has plunged the heroine, and a black ink well.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 83m silent
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Anny Ondra, Carl Brisson, Malcolm Keen
Synopsis:
On the Isle of Man two friends, a fisherman and a rising lawyer, are in love with the publican's daughter, but when the former plights his troth and goes abroad to make his fortune, he leaves her in the protective care of his pal. Gradually the girl falls for the judge-to-be, the fisherman returns and marries her unwitting, and the stage is set for an anguished and scandalous dénouement.
Review:
Actually a remake of a 1917 film, this at first sight untypical Hitchcock melodrama has a number of factors to commend it. Partly shot on location in Cornwall, it uses interiors (pub, cottage, chambers) effectively to underline the dynamics of a given scene; the lives of the little folk at one point resembles the subject matter of Visconti's La Terra Trema, leading some to bandy terms like 'proto-neo-realist', despite there being few other neo-realist features to the plot. More persuasively, the plight of the star-crossed triangle, torn between love and duty and loyalty to the baby, is movingly conveyed by Ondra, Brisson and, to a lesser extent, the more wooden Keen. There are a couple of Hitchcock touches (though no personal appearance) in a shot of the publican bearing menacingly down on the camera, and a dissolve of the harbour's murky depths into which has plunged the heroine, and a black ink well.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 83m silent
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Anny Ondra, Carl Brisson, Malcolm Keen
Synopsis:
On the Isle of Man two friends, a fisherman and a rising lawyer, are in love with the publican's daughter, but when the former plights his troth and goes abroad to make his fortune, he leaves her in the protective care of his pal. Gradually the girl falls for the judge-to-be, the fisherman returns and marries her unwitting, and the stage is set for an anguished and scandalous dénouement.
Review:
Actually a remake of a 1917 film, this at first sight untypical Hitchcock melodrama has a number of factors to commend it. Partly shot on location in Cornwall, it uses interiors (pub, cottage, chambers) effectively to underline the dynamics of a given scene; the lives of the little folk at one point resembles the subject matter of Visconti's La Terra Trema, leading some to bandy terms like 'proto-neo-realist', despite there being few other neo-realist features to the plot. More persuasively, the plight of the star-crossed triangle, torn between love and duty and loyalty to the baby, is movingly conveyed by Ondra, Brisson and, to a lesser extent, the more wooden Keen. There are a couple of Hitchcock touches (though no personal appearance) in a shot of the publican bearing menacingly down on the camera, and a dissolve of the harbour's murky depths into which has plunged the heroine, and a black ink well.