The Farmer's Wife

Last updated

The Farmer's Wife
The farmers wife med1.gif
US bootleg DVD sleeve
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay by Eliot Stannard
Leslie Arliss (uncredited)
Based on The Farmer's Wife play by
Eden Phillpotts
Adelaide Phillpotts
Produced by John Maxwell (uncredited)
Starring Jameson Thomas
Lillian Hall-Davis
Gordon Harker
Cinematography Jack E. Cox
Edited by Alfred Booth
Production
company
Distributed byWardour Films
Release date
  • 2 March 1928 (1928-03-02)
Running time
107 minutes (2012 restoration)
CountryUnited Kingdom
Language Silent film with English intertitles

The Farmer's Wife is a 1928 British silent romantic comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jameson Thomas, Lillian Hall-Davis and Gordon Harker.

Contents

It is adapted from a 1916 play of the same name by British novelist, poet and playwright Eden Phillpotts, best known for a series of novels based on Dartmoor, in Devon. The Farmer's Wife is produced by British International Pictures at Elstree studios. The film's sets were designed by the art director Wilfred Arnold. The film was remade as a 1941 film The Farmer's Wife directed by Leslie Arliss. [1]

Plot

The Farmer's Wife (1928)

Tibby, the wife of Samuel Sweetland (Jameson Thomas) dies, and shortly afterwards his daughter marries and leaves home, leaving him on his own with his two servants. His wife had told him that he should remarry after her death, so he pursues some local spinsters who were at his daughter's wedding after he and his housekeeper Minta (Lillian Hall-Davis) make out a list of possibilities.

First is Widow Louisa Windeatt, but Sweetland is shocked and angry when she rejects his advances and says she is too independent for him. Next, he attempts to court Thirza Tapper, a nervous wreck who almost collapses when Sweetland proposes to her. She, too, rejects him because she says she has no need for a man, and he is furious yet again. He wanders outside as other guests arrive for her party. His grumpy servant Ash is helping at the party, wearing an ill-fitting coat and trying to keep his trousers up while doing his work at the party.

While the others are outside listening to some singers, Sweetland proposes to Mary Hearn, but she rejects him as too old, and then becomes hysterical when he angrily tells her that she too is "full blown and a bit over."

Later Sweetland tells Minta that he is not going to finish the list of women because he is so dejected. He leaves the room and Ash returns and tells Minta what an embarrassment to men that Sweetland is by going around and practically begging any woman to be his wife. Sweetland overhears this and orders Ash to saddle his horse because he is going to try number four on the list, Mercy Bassett, a barmaid at a local inn. After he leaves, it is revealed that Minta is in love with him. Bassett rejects him too and he comes home dejectedly. Meanwhile, postmistress Hearn and Tapper compare notes and Hearn decides she should marry him after all and she goes to his house with Tapper.

Having run through the women who have turned him down, Samuel sees Minta for the first time as more than a housekeeper and decides that she is the woman for him, if she'll have him. He tells her he has got used to being rejected and will not be angry if she rejects him, too. She accepts him and he tells her to put on the dress Tibby gave her. As she goes to the room, Hearn and Tapper arrive. Hearn says she is now willing to be his wife. Samuel says all should drink a toast to his wife to be and Hearn is sure it is her, until Minta comes down the stairs in an attractive dress. Hearn lapses into hysterics again as Sweetland reveals that Minta will be his bride.

Cast

Production

The supporting cast includes Gordon Harker, in a comic role as a surly servant named Churdles Ash; Gibb McLaughlin as Henry Coaker; and Maud Gill as Thirza Tapper. As well as many indoor locations, there are a few outdoor scenes, such as Samuel getting about on a horse in open country as well as a large fox hunt starting off from the local inn.

Preservation status and home media

A restoration of The Farmer's Wife was completed in 2012 as part of the BFI's £2 million "Save the Hitchcock 9" project to restore all of the director's surviving silent films. [2]

The Farmer's Wife has been heavily bootlegged on home video. [3] Despite this, various licensed, restored releases have appeared on DVD, Blu-ray and video on demand from Optimum in the UK, Lionsgate and Kino Lorber in the US, and many others. [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Young and Innocent</i> 1937 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Young and Innocent, released in the US as The Girl Was Young, is a 1937 British crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney. Based on the 1936 novel A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey, the film is about a young man on the run from a murder charge who enlists the help of a woman who must put herself at risk for his cause. An elaborately staged crane shot Hitchcock devised, which appears towards the end of the film, identifies the real murderer.

<i>Sabotage</i> (1936 film) 1936 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Sabotage, released in the United States as The Woman Alone, is a 1936 British espionage thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Sylvia Sidney, Oskar Homolka, and John Loder. It is loosely based on Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel The Secret Agent, about a woman who discovers that her husband is a terrorist agent.

<i>The Skin Game</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

The Skin Game is a 1931 British drama film by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the 1920 play by John Galsworthy and produced by British International Pictures. The story revolves around two rival families, the Hillcrists and the Hornblowers, and the disastrous results of the feud between them.

<i>The Manxman</i> (1929 film) 1929 film

The Manxman is a 1929 British silent romance film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anny Ondra, Carl Brisson and Malcolm Keen. The film is based on a popular 1894 romantic novel The Manxman by Hall Caine, which had previously been made into a film 13 years earlier. It was the last fully silent production that Hitchcock directed before he made the transition to sound film with his next film Blackmail (1929).

<i>Secret Agent</i> (1936 film) 1936 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Secret Agent is a 1936 British espionage thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, adapted from the play by Campbell Dixon, which in turn is loosely based on two stories in the 1927 collection Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film stars Madeleine Carroll, Peter Lorre, John Gielgud, and Robert Young. It also features uncredited appearances by Michael Redgrave, future star of Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938), Michel Saint-Denis as the Coachman, and Michael Rennie in his film debut.

<i>The Pleasure Garden</i> (1925 film) 1925 film by Alfred Hitchcock

The Pleasure Garden is a 1926 British–German silent drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock in his feature film directorial debut. Based on the 1923 novel of the same name by Oliver Sandys, the film is about two chorus girls at the Pleasure Garden Theatre in London and their troubled relationships.

<i>Blackmail</i> (1929 film) 1929 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Blackmail is a 1929 British thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, and Cyril Ritchard. Based on the 1928 play of the same name by Charles Bennett, the film is about a London woman who is blackmailed after killing a man who tries to rape her.

<i>Rebecca</i> (1940 film) 1940 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Rebecca is a 1940 American romantic psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was Hitchcock's first American project, and his first film under contract with producer David O. Selznick. The screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison, and adaptation by Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan, were based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier.

<i>Waltzes from Vienna</i> 1934 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Waltzes from Vienna is a 1934 British biographical film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, sometimes known as Strauss' Great Waltz. It was part of the cycle of operetta films made in Britain during the 1930s.

<i>The Ring</i> (1927 film) 1927 film by Alfred Hitchcock

The Ring is a 1927 British silent romance film written and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Carl Brisson, Lillian Hall-Davis and Ian Hunter.

<i>Rich and Strange</i> 1931 film

Rich and Strange, released in the United States as East of Shanghai, is a 1931 British romance film directed by Alfred Hitchcock during his time in the British film industry. The film was adapted by Hitchcock, his wife Alma Reville, and Val Valentine from the 1930 novel by Dale Collins. The title is an allusion to words of Ariel's song "Full fathom five" in Shakespeare's The Tempest.

<i>Murder!</i> 1930 film

Murder! is a 1930 British thriller film co-written and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring and Edward Chapman. Written by Hitchcock, his wife Alma Reville and Walter C. Mycroft, it is based on the 1928 novel Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson. It was Hitchcock's third all-talkie film, after Blackmail (1929) and Juno and the Paycock (1930).

<i>Easy Virtue</i> (1928 film) 1928 film

Easy Virtue is a 1928 British silent romance film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Isabel Jeans, Franklin Dyall and Ian Hunter.

Champagne is a 1928 British silent comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Betty Balfour, Gordon Harker and Jean Bradin. The screenplay was based on an original story by writer and critic Walter C. Mycroft. The plot concerns a young woman forced to take a job after her father loses his fortune.

<i>The Man Who Knew Too Much</i> (1934 film) 1934 film by Alfred Hitchcock

The Man Who Knew Too Much is a 1934 British spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, featuring Leslie Banks and Peter Lorre, and released by Gaumont British. It was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed films of Hitchcock's British period.

<i>Mary</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

Mary (1931) is a British-German thriller film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and is the German-language version of Hitchcock's Murder! (1930), shot simultaneously on the same sets with German-speaking actors. The film is based on the 1928 book Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson, and stars Alfred Abel and Olga Chekhova. Miles Mander reprises his role as Gordon Druce from Murder!, though the character's name was changed to Gordon Moore.

<i>Jamaica Inn</i> (film) 1939 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Jamaica Inn is a 1939 British adventure thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted from Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel of the same name. It is the first of three of du Maurier's works that Hitchcock adapted. It stars Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara in her first major screen role. It is the last film Hitchcock made in the United Kingdom before he moved to the United States.

<i>The 39 Steps</i> (1935 film) 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock

The 39 Steps is a 1935 British spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. It is loosely based on the 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It concerns a Canadian civilian in London, Richard Hannay, who becomes caught up in preventing an organisation of spies called "The 39 Steps" from stealing British military secrets. Mistakenly accused of the murder of a counter-espionage agent, Hannay goes on the run to Scotland and becomes tangled up with an attractive woman, Pamela, while hoping to stop the spy ring and clear his name.

<i>The Farmers Wife</i> (1941 film) 1941 film by Norman Lee

The Farmer's Wife is a 1941 British comedy drama film directed by Norman Lee and Leslie Arliss and starring Basil Sydney, Wilfrid Lawson and Nora Swinburne. It is based on the play The Farmer's Wife by Eden Phillpotts which had previously been adapted by Alfred Hitchcock for a 1928 film of the same name. It was produced by ABPC at Welwyn Studios, at a time when the company's main Elstree Studios had been requisitioned for wartime use. The film is not widely known.

The Farmer's Wife is a romantic comedy play by the British writer Eden Phillpotts, based on the scenario of his novel Widecombe Fair (1913). It was first staged in Birmingham in 1916. Its London premiere was at the Royal Court Theatre in 1924. By 1926 when Laurence Olivier went on tour in the lead role, the play had already been performed 1,300 times.

References

  1. Vagg, Stephen (25 March 2023). "A Brief History of Hitchcock Remakes". Filmink.
  2. "Alfred Hitchcock Collectors' Guide". Brenton Film. 8 August 2018.
  3. "Bootlegs Galore: The Great Alfred Hitchcock Rip-off". Brenton Film. 8 August 2018.
  4. "Alfred Hitchcock Collectors' Guide: The Farmer's Wife (1928)". Brenton Film. 6 November 2018.