The Manxman (1929)

Film: The Manxman (1929)

Stars: Carl Brisson, Malcolm Keen, Anny Ondra

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

(Throughout the year, in connection with our 'Saturdays with the Stars' series, I am watching every gap I have in Alfred Hitchcock's filmography in what we're calling 'Sunday Leftovers.'  Every Sunday, I'll be watching a Hitchcock film that I've never seen before as I spend 2021 completing his filmography)

We are hitting a precipice in our Sunday Leftovers season on Alfred Hitchcock today.  For months we have been focusing on Hitch's Silent Era films, the many movies he made before he became, well, "HITCHCOCK."  This week we are still in the Silent Era, but we are in the final Silent Era picture of the Master of Suspense's career.  Next week we will enter the sound era (as will all of British cinema, in what is generally considered to be the first British talking picture) with Blackmail, but today we need to talk about yet another sudsy romance when Hitch was still something of a (prominent) director for hire: The Manxman.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is essentially a (very messy) love triangle tale.  Pete (Brisson) and Philip (Keen) are best friends from different walks of life; Pete is a broke, handsome fisherman while Philip is a middle-class lawyer that could become the city's chief magistrate if he plays his cards right.  They both fall for Kate (Ondra), the daughter of a local pub owner.  Initially Pete is rejected when Kate's father doesn't want her marrying some poor schlub, but she promises to wait for him while he's off making his fortune.  While he's away, Philip & Kate fall in love, though both are reluctant to acknowledge their passionate affair since they are betraying Pete's trust.  When Pete returns, he is rich & Kate's father insists she marry him, but her heart belongs to Philip, and soon we learn it's more than her heart he's gained access to, as she's pregnant with their love child.  When the baby girl is born, Kate leaves Pete, who is bereft but takes solace in fatherhood, but when Philip won't acknowledge their love affair, Kate attempts to kill herself.  This all leads to a court case where Philip confesses that he has made Kate a "lost woman" and must step down as chief magistrate.  The film ends on a dour note, with Philip & Kate getting their daughter, but their lives upended & ruined by scandal, while Pete goes out into the sea once again with nothing, his wife & daughter lost to him forever.

The movie is too long-I think there are different cuts of the picture, but I definitely got the one that is nearly two hours.  The plot gets repetitive, and while there is a lot of juice in this plum in terms of sudsy storylines, they start to peter at the hour mark.  This is honestly more to do with Ondra than anything.  It's not clear early on why she prefers Philip to Pete.  Keen is utterly charmless as Philip, and well, Pete is an affable hunk.  You don't get the sense that she's after Philip initially for her money or his prestige, particularly since it's not clear she cares a lick when Pete comes back and is even richer than Philip.  Her motivations are so core to the film that I felt lost at times since she wasn't giving us much intuition into how she saw Kate, and in silent films, subtle acting is not your friend.

That said, Brisson is excellent as Pete.  He plays the guy as this lug-headed himbo, and honestly, it's one of my favorite performances we've seen so far this year for Sunday Leftovers.  He's such a sweetheart, and has a sort of Chris Pratt vibe going for most of the film.  You see his final break, when he realizes that Kate has betrayed him, and he doesn't react with anger, but more sorrow & confusion.  This is a nice change-of-pace for an era where the jilted husband would most-often come armed with a gun rather than a broken heart, and it's a nice modern touch that doesn't ruin what is the movie's best asset.