A fisherman and a lawyer, Pete and Phil, have known each
other for years and have become as close as brothers. Whilst Phil helps the
fishing community on the Isle of Man in a crisis Pete introduces him to Kate, a
beautiful barmaid whom Pete aims to marry. Without money and the blessing from
her father, Pete decides to go abroad to Africa to make his fortune so that he
and Kate can be together and he leaves Phil to keep an eye on her as she waits
for him. But a love blossoms between Phil and Kate while Pete is away, made
more arrant when news arrives of his death. The affair enters new realms of
complicated when a telegram arrives from Pete saying that he’s not dead and
he’s on his way home…
This intriguing three-way love story makes for a very
engaging movie albeit a very lengthy and bleak one. Setting it aside from the
comedic genre of the love triangle, The
Manxman indulges in copious bouts of misery, grief, dismay, and trials of
will in order to keep the audience captivated, making it a romantic tragedy well
within the company of Shakespeare’s Othello
or even Romeo and Juliet.
However,
having said this the romance plays second fiddle to the exploration of the
strength of will of man and woman and it’s this that makes this movie so
entrancing and hard to turn away from.
Although there are a number of scenes
where the long walk is too deliberated upon and the facial scenes are sometimes
drawn out for a bit too long, ultimately I found this movie to be really
engaging although I have to say that it is a bit deflating (like most tragedies
are).
A fisherman and a lawyer, Pete and Phil, have known each other for years
and have become as close as brothers. Whilst Phil helps the fishing community
on the Isle of Man in a crisis Pete introduces him to Kate, a beautiful barmaid
whom Pete aims to marry. Without money and the blessing from her father, Pete
decides to go abroad to Africa to make his fortune so that he and Kate can be
together and he leaves Phil to keep an eye on her as she waits for him. But a
love blossoms between Phil and Kate while Pete is away, made more arrant when
news arrives of his death. The affair enters new realms of complicated when a
telegram arrives from Pete saying that he’s not dead and he’s on his way home…
Through his array of lingering camera angles and shots, Hitchcock really
hammers home the point of this movie: to think about it in terms of emotional
struggles, honour, and willpower. It’d be easy to turn this into some
hilarious, knockabout romantic comedy with a somewhat unbelievable happy
ending, but the fact that everyone is so disillusioned and deflated by the end
of it with all the emotional drainage and hurdles that they go over and
through, just sets this film apart from other stories of similar structure.
The
performances are actually quite breathtaking, although I think on some level I
was more intrigued how much like Chris Lilley the guy who played Pete looked.
The two leads, Carl Brisson and Malcolm Keen, are brilliant side by side
because they’re like chalk and cheese. Carl as Pete is very lively and boyish
whereas Malcolm as Phil is handsomely stoic and reserved.
Starring Anny Ondra,
Randle Ayrton, and Clare Greet, The
Manxman is a captivating film filled with drama, romance, intrigue, and betrayal.
Although it was a bit too lengthy for my comfort I can’t deny that, on closer
scrutiny, it really is an exceptional movie despite the fact that it leaves you
a little deflated by the end.
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