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June 1941: Man Hunt

Man Hunt. Fritz Lang. 1941.

Is this the first American war film (sort of) in this blog series? Everybody’s speaking English, though (except for the Germans), so perhaps it was just financed by Americans, but it’s British?

And it’s Fritz Lang! Golly!

The cinematography is on another plane entirely from these other American films I’ve watched previously. So many details. So stylised. (I know that’s a contradiction.)

It’s thrilling to watch on a scene-by-scene basis, even if the plot doesn’t really make that much sense. It’s been lovingly restored for this blu-ray release.

If this had had a non-moronic plot, it’d have been a classic. The acting’s great and it’s exciting and it looks wonderful. But I can easily see that others wouldn’t be this patient with this nonsense.

[time passes]

I’m now watching the documentary extras on the disc. It’s fascinating! There were congressional hearings after this film was released to investigate pro-British Hollywood activities! Because the US was neutral at this time, of course, and this film is overtly anti-Nazi.

Pro-British activity. Sheesh.

Popular movies in June 1941 according to IMDB:

Poster Votes Rating Movie
3867 7.4 Man Hunt
281 7.2 Underground
734 7.1 Moon Over Miami
1258 7.0 Blossoms in the Dust
951 6.9 Out of the Fog
376 6.8 Caught in the Draft
791 6.6 Tom, Dick and Harry
3968 6.6 The Big Store
643 6.6 They Met in Bombay
225 5.6 Broadway Limited

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

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