If you have seen Inglorious Basterds, you know that Quentin Tarantino indulged revisionist history about Hitler. An alternative fate for Hitler likewise drives the story in Man Hunt. Directed by Fritz Lang, who had escaped from Nazi Germany, it was released six months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I was hooked watching Man Hunt from the start, with its unnervingly realistic depiction of Hitler in the crosshairs of Walter Pidgeon’s rifle.
Canadian-born Pidgeon plays an Englishman, and Russian-born George Sanders plays a German. They’re both fine in their roles, especially Sanders, who seemed to have spoken German as impeccably as he did English. Constance Bennett’s younger sister Joan is a delight, with her Eliza Doolittle accent. In one scene she looks so disappointed when Walter says he’s going to sleep on the couch, it’s obvious that she wanted him to join her in bed. I’m surprised it wasn’t cut by the censors. (Pidgeon was actually quite gay.)