ianlouisiana Review of The Great Manhunt

The Great Manhunt (1950)

In which Miss Glynis Johns became the love of my life.

[10/10 · 28 July 2007]

I fell in love for the first time whilst watching "State Secret" back in 1951.The object of my pre - pubescent affections was the delectable Miss G.Johns whose sweet husky voice sent tremors down my 10 year - old spine. When she sang "Paper Doll" - familiar to me from my mother's record by a black group called "The Inkspots"(yes,really) - I went into a sort of reverie that lasted until I saw Vera - Ellen in "On the Town" when all thoughts of Miss Johns were swept from my head. I never forgot the movie though,and years later I bought a book of film criticism called "Shots in the dark" that included a very positive review of "State Secret" which I read with fascination and a growing sense of awareness that there might be more to this movie in particular and to movies in general than I had realised. Certainly "State Secret" is a fascinating and entertaining,cleverly scripted and lovingly put together film.Mr D.Fairbanks jr. - in a role that could have been tailor made for Cary Grant - plays a surgeon sent to operate on the president of a Balkan state.He is very suave,with a nice line in white macintoshes.Unfortunately the president dies and Mr Fairbanks becomes persona non grata to the extent that he must be eliminated.Mr J.Hawkins is the security chief whose job it is to keep the president's death a secret.He is the very epitome of the canny opportunist in power,forever sniffing for a change of wind. Miss G.Johns is what used to be called a "chorus girl" marooned in this bleak state and she and Mr Fairbanks team up as innocents abroad to escape to the right side of the Iron Curtain. Mr H.Lom is memorable in a particularly well - written role. Redolent in part of "Foreign Correspondent",the movie has more humour than Mr Hitchcock would have allowed,and its villains are more fully developed and ambiguous than many of his. I have loved it for most of my life and thoroughly recommend it to those who would normally endorse M.Truffaut's comment that the words "British" and "Cinema" are antithetical.I suspect he must have missed "State Secret".