Man Hunt is a very well made thriller, with some of that 1940s war propaganda, with some solid performances by Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett and George Sanders, a great score from Alfred Newman and impressive cinematography.
Man Hunt
(1941)
Genre(s): Crime, Thriller
Twilight Time | NR – 102 min. – $29.95 | August 12, 2014
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MOVIE INFO: Directed by: Fritz Lang Writer(s): Geoffrey Household (novel); Dudley Nichols (screenplay) Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine, Roddy McDowall DISC INFO: Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 1.0) |
PLOT SUMMARY
Director Fritz Lang’s masterful Man Hunt, made before the United States had entered World War II, is an unabashed call to arms disguised as an expressionistic thriller. It opens with a bang—or lack thereof—as celebrated hunter Alan Thorndike (WALTER PIDGEON) draws a “sporting” bead on none other than Adolf Hitler, and promptly finds himself arrested by the Gestapo, the hunter becomes the hunted: pursued through London’s back alleys and subterranean byways by a gang of ruthless Nazis, headed by Major Quive-Smith (GEORGE SANDERS), with only a love-struck girl of the streets (JOAN BENNETT) to help him.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.5/5
Audio Commentary – Author Patrick McGilligan, who is an expert on director Fritz Lang (to go along with Clint Eastwood and Alfred Hitchcock), talking about the movie in a straight-forward fashion. As solo tracks go, it’s not bad and quite insightful.
Rogue Male: The Making of Man Hunt (16:37; SD) is a retrospective featurette with comments by film historians discussing the movie and its historical impact.
Theatrical Trailer (1:50; SD)
VIDEO –4.25/5
Man Hunt is presented in its original full frame 1.33 aspect ratio and a rather impressive 1080p high-definition transfer. The black and white picture is clear and dark levels are nice and stark and show no major flaws like artifacts, dust marks or scratches. Given this film is over 70 years old, I thought the transfer was quite good and maybe one of the better of that era.
One of the audio options is a Isolated Score Track showcasing the soundtrack in DTS-HD MA 2.0.
AUDIO – 4.0/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track has clear dialogue levels where every word is understandable and eve for a single channel, there was some depth between the score and some of the ambient noises.
OVERALL – 4.0/5
Overall, Man Hunt is a very well made thriller, with some of that 1940s war propaganda, with some solid performances by Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett and George Sanders, a great score from Alfred Newman and impressive cinematography. The Blu-ray released by Twilight Time falters some in the features department but the video and audio transfers are both well done.
Published: 08/15/2014