The Manxman

Plot synopsis:
The film tells the story of two close childhood friends, a handsome but poor fisherman, Pete Quilliam (Carl Brisson), and a well-educated middle-class lawyer, Philip Christian (Malcolm Keen); Both the young men are smitten with beautiful and lively Kate (Anny Ondra), the pub owner's daughter. In Pete's case, Kate is also interested in him, or at least she enjoys having him as a suitor.
Pete proposes, asking Philip to make the case to Kate's tough father, Old Caesar (Randle Ayrton). The father refuses to consent to the marriage, because Pete is penniless. Pete decides to go to Africa to make his fortune, so he will be considered eligible to marry her, and he asks Kate if she will "wait for him". At first she jokes around, but finally she says yes. Pete then asks Philip to take care of Kate until he returns.
In his absence, Philip starts calling on Kate almost every day. Kate and Philip become strongly attracted to one another, and start an affair while visiting an old mill.
News reaches the village that Pete has been killed upcountry in Africa. Philip and Kate are shocked but Kate is relieved to realize that they can now plan their lives together. Philip's career has been going well, and he is preparing to assume the powerful position of Deemster, the island's chief magistrate.
However, it then turns out that Pete is still alive, and has been successful in Africa. He lets Philip know via telegram that he is returning. Pete arrives and is extremely happy to be back to his village and to see his old sweetheart. Philip and Kate are shocked and appalled, but they do not let anyone know what has passed between them. Old Caesar is now delighted to agree to Kate marrying Pete. The wedding reception is celebrated in the old mill, where Old Caesar sternly warns the newlyweds to remember that God will punish anyone who violates the vows of marriage.
Kate is still in love with Philip, and can hardly bear to be married to Pete.
As the weeks pass, Pete is thrilled to find out that Kate is pregnant, and he naturally assumes he is the father. When Kate's daughter is born, not long afterwards Kate is desperate and decides to leave Pete. She walks out, leaving her baby behind, and a note saying that she had loved another man, and still loves him. Pete is appalled and does not know where Kate went, but he tells the villagers that Kate needed a vacation, so he sent her to London for a while. During the weeks she is gone, Pete proves himself to be a wonderful father, taking care of the baby very well, and comforting himself by believing that although Kate has gone, he still has their baby to love.
Kate persuades Philip to hide her at his law offices, hoping she can still somehow have a life with him. However, Philip is about to become the Deemster, and he is unwilling to ruin his career by running off with her. Frustrated and distraught, Kate returns to the house to take the baby. She tells Pete he is not the baby's father. Pete is stunned and refuses to believe her. He also refuses to give up the child. In desperation, Kate leaves the house and tries to commit suicide by throwing herself off the quay.
Kate is rescued by a policeman. Attempted suicide is classified as a crime, and Kate is brought to trial on the first day that Philip serves as Deemster. Now Philip is stunned and hardly knows what to do. When Pete appears in the courtroom to plead for his wife, Philip agrees to hand Kate over to him. But Kate refuses to go. Kate's father, Old Caesar, who is watching carefully, finally understands that Kate and Philip had an affair. Old Caesar gets up and loudly condemns Philip for being the "other man". Philip publicly admits his extreme moral failings. He removes his wig and surrenders his official position, and then leaves the court.
In the final scene, Philip and Kate sadly prepare to leave the island. They arrive at Pete's house to take away the baby. Kate picks up the child, while Philip and Pete stand at opposite ends of the room. She brings the child over to Pete to say one last goodbye, and he breaks down, having finally lost everything. Philip and Kate leave the cottage to the jeers and condemnation of the villagers, who have been watching the scene through the windows.

Tags: romantic

Review:
excellent love triangle on the Isle of Man. Hitchcock's final silent, 'The Manxman', has two stars you'll see elsewhere in his films - Carl Brisson, from 'The Ring', and Anny Ondra, from 'Blackmail'.
Malcolm Keen plays the friend who finds his loyalties tested while he strives to make good in his chosen career of the law.Beautifully shot and quite modern in tone, this boasts a lovely performance from Ondra, while Brisson convinces as a fisherman who trusts too much and sees too little.
Don't expect the usual Hitchcock touches that were present in his later films...he developed them more fully in his very early talkies "Murder" and "Blackmail" and somewhat in his silent "The Lodger".
The cast here is good, Carl Brisson (who would later become the father-in-law of Rosalind Russell) and Anny Ondra who Hitchcock would use again in "Blackmail"; however, some of the plot lines are not fully developed and one rather important element is left unsaid in the story's ending.
Hitchcock's final silent film is another drama focusing on a love triangle  his primary plot basis in these early days before he became the master of suspense.In many ways The Manxman can be seen as something of a loose remake of The Ring (1928), following a similar story of a love triangle between a man, his wife and his best friend, with similar characters and circumstances and the same lead man in Carl Brisson.
However while that earlier boxing drama eventually pulled its punch (excuse the pun), The Manxman is a far harsher affair, with a ruthless disregard for its characters' fates that prefigures film noir.As was Hitchcock's style from his earliest works, his aim here as a director is to place the audience inside the scenario, no matter how uncomfortable it makes them.
There are plenty of exquisite location shots and great use of natural lighting, in ironic counterpoint to the darkness of the story.While not quite the best of them, The Manxman is perhaps the most confident of Hitchcock's silent pictures.
Above all what he wanted to do was to engage the audience with the emotions of the characters, and this he successfully achieves with what is essentially soap opera material with his usual technical mastery - such as the stern father seen from the fiancée's perspective through the glass of a window, or the girl's diary where she turns the pages and finds her true love's name gradually dominating her life.
It was Hitch's last *total* silent ('Blackmail' came out in both sound & silent versions),and showcases the first Hitchcock blonde of sorts, pretty little Anny Ondra, whose career was sadly numbered once talkies came along - in 'Blackmail', her Swedish-accented voice was dubbed by Joan Barry.Knowing it's Hitch, you expect a big action finale or an attempted murder of some kind, but it never happens.
The settings and photography are excellent, the acting is generally good, and the story's setup is believable and had possibilities.The best part of the movie is the setting on the Isle of Man, which is done very nicely, with well-chosen settings and terrific photography.
The three leads (Carl Brisson, Anny Ondra, and Malcolm Keen) are all quite good in this part.Unfortunately, the rest of the story is rather a disappointment, moving very slowly at times, and often painful to watch because of some notable flaws in the ways the characters act.
Hitchcock does his best with things, but it's too bad that he did not have a freer hand with the material, which was apparently based on a novel that for whatever reason had acquired a certain popularity at the time.Ultimately, this movie is just average.
But there are still some strengths here, and it is probably worth a look for silent film fans who especially appreciate good black-and-white photography, or for devoted Hitchcock fans who will appreciate the touches he added to an otherwise unsatisfying story..
It's a plain tale of a love triangle set on the Isle of Man, the woman (Ondra) falls in love with the best friend (Keen) of her absent husband-to-be (Brisson).
It's not quite up to the level of Flesh and the Devil, but there's so few British silent films extant that it's well worth a look, or even just to view Hitchcock's early efforts..
The emotion flow doesn't make sense in either direction.For the role of Philip -- good lawyer, unreliable friend and lover -- we see a man clearly in his 40's who looks old enough to be the girl's father.
The third node in the triangle is Danish actor Carl Brisson (34 when this was made) , whose most often used talent in this film was his ability to grin glassy eyed into the camera, showing us two enormous dimple lines.Despite the limitations of the casting and "Pete's" acting ability, the performance qualities aren't too bad.
What a woman.The plot of Hitchcock's last silent movie reads like a storyline from the unaccountably popular Brit soap 'EastEnders.' Even though she doesn't really love him, Kate (the truly delectable Anny Ondra), a flirtatious pub landlord's daughter, rashly promises to wait for her young beau Pete (a hulking Carl Brisson) to return from Africa where he plans to go to make his fortune after the surly pub landlord refuses him her hand in marriage.
She loves Philip (Malcolm Keen), an up-and-coming lawyer who just happens to be Pete's best mate and who also reciprocates her feelings of ardour.
Anyway, word comes from Africa that Pete has died, leaving Kate and Philip free to declare their love for one another – something neither had felt able to do when poor old Pete was alive.Of course, this being an opera of the soapiest kind, it turns out the jungle drums got it wrong and Pete isn't dead after all!
Now this is where you'd think Kate and Philip would come clean – after all, they thought Pete was dead – but instead they keep quiet about their affair and Kate marries Pete out of a sense of obligation.There's plenty more plot to follow, but suffice it to say that a lot of hand-wringing and soul-searching follows.
And either Kate and Phil were still at it after Pete returned from Africa, or Pete's too thick to do the maths and release that he was still ocean-bound when his loving wife conceived.The plot summary above actually makes the film sound more interesting than it really is.
The Manxman is Alfred Hitchcock's last silent film before he switched over to sound with Blackmail (1929).
Since Kate promised she'd wait for Pete she still ends up marrying him upon his return but she also has an affair with Philip and things start to turn ugly as Pete starts to learn more and more about what is going on.
The film is based off of a novel and the story is very good and interesting although it seems to follow Hitchcock's typical theme of a love triangle which he has in many of his films.The acting in the movie is very good overall with Carl Brisson as Pete.
And then there is Anny Ondra who plays Kate and she does a worthwhile job at showing love for Philip but not for Pete.
The musical score is mediocre and feels like it's just a lot of recycled music from earlier Hitchcock films but at least it gets the job done.Overall this film isn't perfect by any means but it does have a lot of positive qualities which make it worth watching.
The plot is really interesting and entertaining if you aren't already sick of Hitchcock's love triangle theme and the acting in the film is overall pretty good.
Kate's father rejects Pete as a suitor because he is penniless, so Pete goes off to make his fortune, making the fatal mistake of asking Phil to 'take care of ' Kate until his return.From here on "The Manxman" turns into a pretty powerful picture and builds to a crescendo at the finale.
Malcolm Keen, as Phil, is too old and Anny Ondra, as Kate, is too young - she looks about twelve and is very small.
On the other hand,Carl Brisson, as Pete, is perfect and is the star of the picture.I thought it was one of Hitchcock's best efforts.
Like many directors of his age, he started out making silent films and taking whatever plots and premises that would come his way.
Gorgeous silent movie actress Anny Ondra was very good as the girl who finds herself the embodiment of affection of two men she's fond of.
Like a lot of Hitchcock's early-career films, it's a decent movie, but not a great one.
Well-heeled boyhood chum Malcolm Keen (as Phil Christian), whom he's asked to look after fickle sweetheart Anny Ondra (as Kate Cregeen), accomplishes what you'd expect.
Then, Mr. Brisson returns This variation on an often-told tale was director Alfred Hitchcock's last silent film.
The old-fashioned picture's main strength is Mr. Hitchcock and photographer Jack Cox' beautiful use of the "Isle of Man" locations; if only D.W. Griffith could have filmed his "Enoch Arden" there...***** The Manxman (1/21/29) Alfred Hitchcock ~ Carl Brisson, Malcolm Keen, Anny Ondra, Randle Ayrton.
Unfortunately, word soon comes to everything that Pete has died, so Philip announces to the girl that he loves her.
Later, he comes to see Philip to ask him to help find his wife--little did he know that she was with his best friend all along.If you think about it, this plot is very much like a soap opera and is nothing like the films for which Hitchcock became well-known.
As far as the acting goes, it's pretty good for a silent--without an serious over-emoting.By the way, Hitchcock's next film (also 1929) turned out to be Britain's first sound film.
Manxman, The (1929) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Hitchcock's last silent film has Carl Brisson playing Pete, a poor fisherman and Malcolm Keen playing Philip, a rich lawyer.
The two have been best friends despite their social differences but Pete falls in love with Kate (Anny Ondra) but her father refuses to let him marry her because he's poor.
Pete sets out to make his money but while he's gone Kate and Philip fall in love.
'The Manxman' is one of those many mediocre (although technically superior) early Hitchcock's melodramas, still it is one of the strongest silents (after 'The Lodger' and 'The Ring') of 'The Master of Suspense'.Former boxer Carl Brisson stars as fisherman Pete Quilliam who falls in love into gorgeous Kate (gorgeous Anny Ondra).
When Pete has to go to work in Africa he asks his best friend Philip (Malcolm Keen) to take care of his girlfriend.
Unfortunately Kate and Philip start to feel more and more towards each other, and when Pete returns home, the emotions and tears start to flow.Although very simple story 'The Manxman' stands above rest of the numerous similar melodramas because Hitchcock's masterful direction and he doesn't allow the film to turn into cheese fest.
Why didn't Kate just tell Pete 'I'm in-love with Phil, and you are our good friend'?
This whole thing/story happened because Kate flirted hard with both men but really only fell in-love with one man, Phil, and lead Pete on in the very beginning.
Kate is to blame for all of this - left Pete hurting badly - not to mention Phil who was like a brother to Pete.Good film - I enjoyed this one.8/10.
The acting is very good, particularly from Carl Brisson while Anny Ondra is not just beautiful but brings a lot of heart to her character and Malcolm Keen completes the love triangle with an equally likable performance.
For those of us on this side of the pond who don't know, a Manxman is one who is a resident of the Isle of Man where the main industry is commercial fishing.This was Alfred Hitchcock's last silent feature and it's a triangle story about Philip and Peter and the girl they're both crazy about Anny Ondryx.
Although the film doesn't have the tragic end of The Scarlet Letter, Keen does a Reverend Dimmesdale like mea culpa as the climax.Some of the scenes of the Isle of Man were quite nicely photographed and I'm told not much has changed in the over 80 years since The Manxman came out.
He uses the camera in a masterful fashion.There are five characters listed as main characters, but actually only four are featured much-the romantic triangle and the girl's father.At first, we're led to think the best friend is diabolical, and in later films, he would be depicted that way.
Here, however, he is a very three dimensional character, in love with his best friend's girl.We get very good imagery, very good backdrops, and very good camera work to tell a basic story.
Alfred Hitchcock's final silent film is an adaptation of a then-popular novel about a love triangle.
Pete falls in love with the barkeeper's daughter, pretty Kate (Anny Ondra) and asks Philip to look after her while he goes off to make his fortune.
Philip looks after her alright, enough to be worried at news of Pete's return.The idiot plot, in this instance, is the fact that Pete and Kate aren't exactly lovers even before he leaves; director Alfred Hitchcock clues us in early to the fact Kate wants Philip and vice versa.
Philip himself says something about Pete's "faith in our loyalty," but it seems a thin idea to build a story around.An idiot plot alone isn't enough to condemn a film; looked at rationally it could be said "The Searchers" and Hitchcock's own "Vertigo" have them, too, and I think they're swell anyway.
You can't help noticing the characters acting stupidly when there's nothing much of quality to distract you.The only arresting element to this whole film, other than the fact it represents Hitchcock's final silent feature (he made some good ones, but really needed sound to find himself), is the cinematography by Jack E.
Inn-keeper's daughter Kate is in love with lawyer Phil, but agrees to marry his boyhood friend Pete, who then goes abroad to seek his fortune.
It is a finely wrought melodrama with many effective and moving scenes and is as well made as any of his more characteristic films of the era, but it also illustrates the limitations of silent cinema as a dramatic medium.I haven't read the book on which The Manxman is based, but I suspect its whole thrust is quite different to this movie.Phil loves Kate, but feels marriage to her would damage his legal career.
That said, the film is nicely photographed and the resolution of the main plot is unconventional, to say the least - as the girl (played by the lovely Anny Ondra, who also starred in BLACKMAIL) chooses the company of the scholarly, upper-class lover over her rugged, more handsome husband!.
In his own way, Hitchcock provided an element of suspense to the story, as I was waiting impatiently for Philip (Malcolm Keen) and Kate (Anny Ondra) to come clean with Pete (Carl Brisson) about their feelings for each other.
Didn't people on the Isle of Man talk to each other in the way of gossip that would have been normal anywhere else?So for me, much of the story didn't ring quite true to life, though for a silent film coming up on the last legs of the era, it was a commendable attempt by the famed director.
One goes off to make his fortune, is falsely reported dead, and returns to find his girl in love with his best friend.This is a good solid drama, well photographed and edited, very well directed and well acted.
The story told itself in the visuals.The film was held back a year and released at the end of 1929.Carl Brisson in one of two films made for Hitchcock (the other THE RING) plays the loving, trusting fisherman, Pete, with more naivete and innocence than sometimes seems possible.
Alfred Hitchcock turned to "The Manxman" for his last silent film.
Peter (Carl Brisson) and Philip (Malcolm Keen) are both in love with the same girl, Kate (vivacious Onny Andra) who is a little flirt and can't make her eyes behave.
The conventions of silents like this must have been imported from the stage though, to be sure, Hitchcock's grounding was in film from the beginning.Still it's distracting to see the characters over-do every expression and gesture, as if making sure that no one in the rear of the theater misses the reactions of the live people on stage.Pete Quilliam (Carl Brisson) is the fisherman who loves the daughter (Anny Ondra) of the dour pub owner.
Being a Hitchcock film, the only surprising thing about this love triangle is that it doesn't end in murder.
Hitchcock's last silent film takes place on the Isle of Man. Director Alfred Hitchcock's last silent film features the beautiful and fetching Anny Ondra (born in what is now known as Poland) in a love triangle opposite Carl Brisson and Malcolm Keen.
The story takes place on the Isle of Man, where its residents are referred to as Manx.Pete Quilliam (Brisson) loves Kate Cregeen (Ondra) but her father Caesar (Randle Ayrton) doesn't consider the big galoot worthy given his meager financial position.
Pete's best friend Philip Christian (Keen) also secretly loves Kate, and he's a lawyer destined to become the deemster, aka judge.
When Pete goes off by ship to earn his fortune, Kate and Philip spend time together, but it's not until they learn that he's been killed that they begin their affair.But the news of Pete's death was premature; he returns as promised and the clandestine affair comes to an end.
It's a love triangle movie, really, which puts it firmly in the realm of the melodrama and pretty far from scares and chills.Pete (Carl Brisson) is a down-on-his-luck fisherman.
But soon he and Kate are falling madly in love with each other, which may complicate things when Pete returns.