Customer Reviews

The Farmer's Wife [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Even though the film originally ran about 97 minutes, and even though Amazon's info shows the running time to be 93 minutes, this Laserlight's DVD version of THE FARMER'S WIFE runs 129 minutes. Apparently, the wrong film speed was used in transferring the film to DVD, stretching the film by an additional half hour. The film's tempo is therefore slowed down a great deal, and the pacing and timing of the various comedy scenes are very much ruined. The DVD does have decent picture and sound (mono) quality.

This dated and predictable film was nevertheless well-acted by Jameson Thomas as the farmer and Lillian Hall-Davis as his housekeeper. Hall-Davis also starred in another Hitchcock's silent comedy "The Ring" (a much better film), also available as a Laserlight DVD.

For the hard-core Hitchcock fan, I recommend getting this set of eight of his early films plus an episode of the TV show. The best of these (39 Steps, Lady Vanishes, Blackmail) all bear the Hitchcock stamp of his finest work inthe 50s and 60s. I especially enjoyed Easy Virtue (1927), an unremarkable film on its own - I had never seen it before, yet could start seeing signs of his masterpieces to come. Although none in this collection is as excellent as North by Northwest or Psycho (although 39 steps isn't far off), where else can you get this much Hitchcock for $30? Buy it!

I have nothing against silent films. In fact Clara Bow's 'It', Lon Chaney's 'The Phantom of The Opera' and Louise Brooks's 'Pandora's Box' are amongst my all-time favourites. But with the exception of 'The Lodger', Hitchcock never really got going in silent films. 'The Farmer's Wife' certainly had the potential for an easy going, enjoyable comedy, but NOT when it lasts over 2 hours. I challenge anyone to watch this film in one sitting without their eyelids feeling increasingly heavy. On the plus points, Laserlight has dispensed with one of those embarrassing Tony Curtis introductions, and has provided us with a newly recorded (and very good) score. The picture quality is also very good. If you're tempted to buy this DVD because it's a Hitchcock film, I'd say don't. It is only worth a look to anyone with an interest in silent films or a genuine Hitchcock enthusiast.

A solid collection of lesser known titles that are definitely worth the price if you are a true Hitchcock fan. Image quality and extras are lacking when compared with your typical Criterion Collection dvd but for this price you can't complain.

Believe or not, this is a slapstick comedy, in spite of the fact we are talking about an early Hitchcock. The dramatis personae turns round a humble farmer who seeks desperately a bride after his wife has died. He doesn't seem to realize his housekeeper is in love with him since a long time. A very interesting proposal of a director in progress by then.

This is an early entry into the British tradition of class based comedies. A one-joke film that drags on for an interminably long 115 minutes, the film was however an un-surprising hit upon it's original release, thanks largely to the performance of it's excellent cast.

Thomas portrays Sweetland so completely without charm, tact or grace it is easy to see why the women all reject him. Unfortunately he manages this so completely it is impossible to feel any pathos for the man, and one can feel only sympathy for the woman who eventually consents to be his bride.

Gill, Pounds, Slade and Bassett are all uniformly excellent as the various objects of Sweetlands pursuits, while Hall-Davies and Harker who were so good in "The Ring" are largely wasted in this coarse script.

Hitch, well aware of the built in popularity of the film seizes the opportunity to experiment behind the camera, the fluid camera movements owe much to Hitch's hero Murnau and the film features one of the first rapid dolly shots.

Hitch's broadest of comedies has dated badly, while it is a highly polished exercise in commercial film production, there are only so many laughs to be gained from watching Harker repeatedly drop his trousers.

OK, let's get this over with; none of us would even consider watching this movie if it weren't for the fact that it was directed by a young Alfred Hitchcock. Indeed, it's doubtful that the movie would have even survived into the 21st Century if it weren't for the director who was to go on to much greater heights. Yet Hitchcock WAS the director and we KNOW he was a masterful director so he must have done a GREAT job, right? Well, not really. I found myself interested somewhat in "The Farmer's Wife" because there is a fair amount of humor in it. I don't know if I laughed out loud but I smiled a few times. I considered asking my wife to waych it and see if she thought I'd end up the same way. However, the one real problem with this movie is that it is TOO long. Frankly, I breathed a sigh of relief when I thought the movie was over. "Maybe it wasn't all that long afterall" I told myself. Yet when the film actually did end about 10 minutes after I thought it would, I had to admit, a lot of it belong on the film editor's floor. For the record, this is a silent movie (Hitchcock directed England's first "talkie" shortly after he made "The Farmer's Wife"). Silent movies need good expressive acting to succeed and I felt that this movie had that. It was proably it's stregth (along with the humor). It's the story of a widower who decides he'll take another wife and how he is angered when his choice of spouse isn't receptive to the idea. He goes through several disappointments all seemingly in the same day before he discovers the obvious choice.

I got this movie as part of an "Early Hitchcock" set. In that sense, I have no qualms that I bought the DVD. I would have been disappointed to have bought this by itself. I liked it well enough but I doubt (due to its' length) that I'll ever watch it again.

En esta era de la tecnología y el gusto por lograr las mejores imágenes y los mejores efectos, esta colección nos lleva a darnos cuenta que las grandes obras de arte se deben edificar a partir de eso, "El Arte". Y esto es precisamente lo que demuestra este box set. El arte de la cinematografía puesta en las manos del genial Hitchcock. Ni que hablar de la producción: Siete discos, cada uno en su propio estuche, excelente sonido, y todo el material subtitulado (includo extras, introducción y trailers), además de que los discos son multizona. Cabe destacar que esto no fue obra de una gran empresa sino de LaserLight Video, pero es algo que los grandes estudios deberían tomar como ejemplo, hartos ya de ver películas con extras sin subtítulos. Si a eso le sumamos el costo del set, nos encontramos con una joya que no podemos desperdiciar. Muy recomendable.