The Farmer's Wife (1928)

After his daughter weds, a middle-aged widower with a profitable farm decides to remarry, but finds choosing a suitable mate a problematic process.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Eden Phillpotts (play), Eliot Stannard (adaptation)

Stars:

Jameson Thomas, Lillian Hall-Davis, Gordon Harker

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jameson Thomas	...	Farmer Sweetland
Lillian Hall-Davis	...	Araminta Dench, His Housekeeper (as Lilian Hall-Davis)
Gordon Harker	...	Churdles Ash, His Handyman
Gibb McLaughlin	...	Henry Coaker
Maud Gill	...	Thirza Tapper
Louie Pounds	...	Widow Windeatt
Olga Slade	...	Mary Hearn, Postmistress
Ruth Maitland	...	Mercy Bassett
Antonia Brough	...	Susan
Haward Watts	...	Dick Coaker
Mollie Ellis	...	Sibley Sweetland

Storyline

Farmer Sweetland is a lonely old widower. He is determined to marry again and he enlists the help of his housekeeper Minta to pick a wife from the local single women.

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Plot Keywords:

dog | loss of wife | farmer | housekeeper | family relationships | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 January 1930 (USA)

Also Known As:

La esposa del granjero

Filming Locations:

Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

British International Pictures (BIP)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min (2012) (theatrical) 107 min (2012 restoration)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Sir Alfred Hitchcock in the famous interview held in 1966 by François Truffaut, the play by Eden Phillpotts, on which this movie was based, was reached to stage one thousand four hundred times in London.

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Goofs

When Farmer Sweetland and Minta are embracing, Sweetland's hands are all the way around her in one shot then just on her arm in the next shot.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Sibley Sweetland: ...and don't forget to air your Master's pants, 'Minta.

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Connections

Referenced in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

User Reviews

It's worth persevering with

The first half is rather slow, but keep going - it's definitely worth it. The humour in Hitchcock's films is generally based around great character actors (e.g. Jessie Royce Landis in To Catch a Thief and North by NorthWest), and here not one of the actors disappoints. Lillian Hall Davis has a better part in the Ring (also 1928 - Gordon Harker is again very amusing in it too), but is lovely in this film. Sound would have added nothing. My 8-year old daughter was apprehensive about watching a silent film, but once things started to get going in the second half, was hooked.

Hitchcock referred to it in later years as one of his "photographed plays", but the action occurs in several locations, so is nowhere near as constrained as many of his films (plays or not). In fact, even though the location shots are few and far between, they really give this film a non-studio feel.

All of Hitchcock's films are notable for their visual storytelling (look at the initial scene-setting in Rear Window that speaks volumes without a single word being uttered), and it is interesting to see the origins of this, and the great influence of German Expressionism.