In Search Of The “What If’s Of History-Walter Pidgeon’s Man Hunt-A Film Review

 

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

Man Hunt, starring Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, directed by Fritz Lang, 1941    

A lot of people, myself included, like to think about certain historical events in the conditional-the “what if’s” of history. You know what if Robert E. Lee’s orders had not gotten into Union Army hands before Antietam, what if Joe Stalin had listened to his well-connected spy networks and acted on the information that Hitler was going full force to invade the Soviet Union, and would the ensuing escalation of the Vietnam War have happened if Jack Kennedy had not been assassinated. And with certain limits such speculation is worthwhile, especially to historians. Those limits being that other things actually did happen and one should not go too far in such speculations. Obviously, and the film under review, Man Hunt, about a fictional scenario involving the possible assassination of Adolph Hitler in 1939 bears this out literature and cinema have wider scope for such conjecture.        

Here is how this cinematic “what if” played out. Well-known African safari hunter Captain Alan Thorndike, played by Walter Pidgeon, tired of the same old, same old, at least that is the story he would tell later decided to see if he could hunt big game. Could pull off an attempt on Adolph Hitler’s life out in his rural retreat. He actually pulled it off-theoretically-but failed to kill the beast since (a) he was only stalking, had only been in it for the hunt not the killing, or (b) a sentry happened upon him to spoil his possibilities. That former argument is the one he made when captured and interrogated by a Major, a high German security officer, played by villainous George Sanders, who naturally did not believe him but who for his own purposes and that of his Fuehrer tortured him in order to have him sign a statement that he acted as an agent of the British government by his action (and obviously the intense reality  for war Europe in 1939 that statement might have been a tipping point for the madmen to jump the gun and roll over Europe right then). But the Captain was made of sterner stuff and balked as that request. The Major though deviously decided that the Captain could be used to further his aims if he got rid of him and substituted one of his own men in his place. But the planned killing didn’t work and the Captain escaped. Now the chase, now the man hunt of the title was on for real.                     

The Captain through stealth and deviousness got himself back to England but with the Major and his entourage hot on his trail. He was almost caught except for the good graces of a young working-class girl in London, okay, okay streetwalker,  played by the fetching Joan Bennett, who helped his through thick and thin, helps him because he treated her like a lady, helped him because she was half- schoolgirl in love with him, and helped him in the end by her own death at the hands of the Nazi scum. As for the Captain and the Major, after a lengthy game of cat and mouse the Captain proved to be the better hunter killed the Major after admitting that he hated Hitler and all his stood for. As the film closed we saw the Captain parachuting out of airplane, long-range rifle on his breast ready to attempt the deed against Hitler-again. Yeah, but what if he had not hesitated that first time. Enough said.