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In this silent comedy from Alfred Hitchcock, a middle-aged farmer and widower (Jameson Thomas) decides to remarry several seasons after the death of his wife. His maid (Lillian Hall-Davis) helps him create a list of eligible women, but each woman turns down his proposals of marriage. Eventually, the farmer realizes the best possible wife is his maid — the woman who’s been pining by his side the whole time.
The Farmer’s Wife is based on a popular stage play and Hitchcock does a phenomenal job transforming it from the stage to the screen. As with his other silent films, he strips out all unnecessary dialogue, relying on visual storytelling wherever possible. The humorous performances, pastoral setting, and accomplished camera work are all interesting enough to carry the film, even if the story itself is too simple and straightforward to warrant a nearly-two-hour runtime. Watching the farmer propose to four different women could become tedious, but Hitchcock keeps the encounters fun — especially in the way the farmer berates each of the women when he’s rejected. His wounded pride turns him so mean, you start to wonder what on Earth the maid sees in him.
Even though the film is long and not at all emblematic of the director’s future work in the suspense/thriller genre, the characters are likeable enough and the story light-hearted enough to keep from feeling burdensome. Hall-Davis (who previously played the floozie in The Ring) gives a surprisingly sweet performance in the final act. The farmer’s crotchety hired hand (The Ring‘s Gordon Harker) gets a little too much superfluous screen time, but he also gets some of the most funniest moments. Highlights include Harker’s problems pushing a woman in a large wheelchair through a small, crowded room, and a witty exchange between the farmer and the maid, when the farmer says, “I don’t mind pillowy women, so long as they be pillowy in the right places.” The maid retorts, “A woman that’s a pillow at thirty be often a feather bed at forty.”
With Maud Gill, Olga Slade, and Gibb McLaughlin.