THE MANXMAN (UK, 1929, Alfred Hitchcock)

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ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S THE MANXMAN (1929). SOURCE: SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL.

 

Alfred Hitchcock’s final silent film chronicles a dramatic love triangle on the Isle of Man, and is based on the popular 1894 novel THE MANXMAN by Hall Caine.

As noted by the National Archive of the British Film Institute: “Set in a remote Isle of Man fishing community (but shot in Cornwall), THE MANXMAN… follows two boyhood friends who take markedly different paths in adulthood: Pete becomes a fisherman, Philip a lawyer. Both fall in love with the same woman, the daughter of a puritanical Methodist, bringing them into conflict not only with their own moral code but also that of the strict Manx society.” Alfred Hitchcock’s penultimate silent film, it remains “one of the best and most mature works of his early career.” (Hitchcock’s next film BLACKMAIL was originally shot as a silent film, but later re-produced as a sound film, becoming Britain’s first “talkie”).

Like his earlier film THE RING, THE MANXMAN finds Hitchcock dabbling in a love-triangle narrative. The film was a critical success, with critics in The Bioscope lauding its “remarkable power and gripping interest.” Unfortunately, the film’s box office traffic was lackluster due to the conversion to sound that was happening during that period, which quickly put silent films out of fashion.

While various Hitchcock films during this early period found the director working in genres (e.g. comedy, romance) he’d rarely work in again — largely due to the fact that he was a young “director-for-hire” and often made films on assignment — he nonetheless manages to imbue THE MANXMAN with the innovative imagery and high emotional stakes that characterized much of his later, better-known thrillers. As noted by writers at the BFI: “Hitchcock established strong visual motifs, beginning with the ‘triskele’ (the three-legged emblem of the Isle of Man) and continued with turning millstones, whose unstoppable momentum symbolized ‘the mills of God’ as they grind slowly, a powerful metaphor for the unforgiving puritanical society confronted by the characters.”

THE MANXMAN
(UK, 1929)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

  • 100 minutes
  • 35mm
  • Black & white
  • Silent film with English intertitles
Distribution Format/s: DVD, Blu-Ray, DSL/Downloadable 1080p .mp4 file on server

Published By: Kino Lorber

Institutional Price: $500

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