Review – Man Hunt

This movie itself isn’t all that odd, except for its 1941 release date. An English hunter (Walter Pidgeon) prowling the woods of Germany happens across a clear view to a kill of Adolph Hitler, but he lingers over the moment long enough to end up thwarted by a stormtrooper. He’s captured and brutally interrogated by a Nazi officer (George Sanders, whose appearance with Pidgeon disproves my theory that they were actually the same guy). Somehow he manages to escape the Gestapo’s clutches and flee back to England with the help of a cabin boy played by a young Roddy McDowall. Director Fritz Lang had a gift for the sort of anti-fascist speechifying that dominates the picture, especially toward the end. However, I was surprised to note that 20th Century Fox made it. As the United States wasn’t at war with Germany when this came out, the insinuation that the assassination of a foreign leader would have been a good thing is at the very least a violation of the Hays Code. Thus I would have figured this for an English production. Mildly amusing