[5]
Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M) directs Walter Pidgeon as a big game hunter pursued by Nazis after attempting to kill Hitler in the lead-up to World War II. Man Hunt is a beautifully shot film featuring a terrific roster of talent that includes George Sanders (All About Eve) and John Carradine (The Grapes of Wrath) as two of the pursuing Gestapo, and Joan Bennett as a sympathetic Cockney girl who offers Pidgeon safe harbor and falls in love with him. Perhaps the most memorable performance comes from young Roddy McDowall (Fright Night) as a kind-hearted cabin boy who helps smuggle Pidgeon out of Germany.
Despite the considerable talent involved, Man Hunt suffers from a meandering script that loses focus throughout much of the second act. Bennett’s character is endearing at first, but her relationship with Pidgeon quickly becomes cloying and infantile. The film is also hindered from the get-go, when Pidgeon initially only takes aim at Hitler with no plan of killing him. He just wanted to know if he could get close enough to do it. But then he thinks for a moment and loads a bullet into his rifle before being captured by a patrolling Nazi. A half-hearted inciting incident grows into a half-assed movie, to say nothing of its overly propagandistic finale. While Man Hunt misses the mark overall, it may still be of interest to fans of Lang’s expressionist style and the warm and wonderful Roddy McDowall.