Courtesy of Canal Plus Image UK

Following the original story The Ring (1927), Hitchcock returned to a successful stage play (by Eden Phillpots) as the source for his next film. But The Farmer's Wife, released in 1928, was in no way a retreat. The story, adapted by Eliot Stannard, concerns the search of a widowed farmer, Samuel Sweetland, for a new wife, approaching four local spinsters with arrogant expectation, only to be wounded by rejection each time, until he at last realises the suitability of his doting housekeeper, Minta.

Around this slim tale Hitchcock built a finely judged and very likeable comedy, with further evidence of his growing sophistication. In particular, the scene in which the farmer and Minta consider the "possibles and the impossibles" for the role of future Mrs Sweetland is a small masterpiece of economic storytelling. The director subtly places the idea of Minta as the best candidate in the minds of the audience by showing Sweetland imagining each of the "possibles" seated in the chair facing his; as the image of each candidate fades, the real Minta is revealed in her place. A later sequence, in which a tea party descends into chaos, is a rare attempt by the director at pure slapstick.

The film features strong performances from Jameson Thomas as the proud but vulnerable Sweetland and Lilian Hall-Davis (from The Ring) as the clever and sympathetic Minta, with Gordon Harker, in his second of four roles for Hitchcock, providing comic support as Sweetland's surly and unkempt handyman, Churtles Ash.

Mark Duguid

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