Hitchcocks early work is swinging in quality, both from movie to movie, but often also within the movies themselves. In the case of his silent "The Farmer´s Wife", we are treated with an adaptation of a popular play, that he tried hard to turn into cinema and only halfway succeeded. The play is very dialog heavy and not the best stepstone for a silent movie. He did what he could to transform the dialog into cinematic storytelling, but a large part of this movie is not too interesting and is just saved by the sweet and emotional conclusion of the farmer´s realization who his real love is.
The middle aged farmer Sweetland (Jameson Thomas) has seen his dedicated wife pass away and now he has just married off his last daughter. Left with his young housekeeper and the farmhand, who has obviously worked there all his life, he begins to feel the loneliness creep up on him.
Reluctantly he convinces himself to seek out the widow-prospects in the neighborhood. But frankly the women are not that attractive or well mannered, even if he has a "lets just get the job done" impulsive attitude towards hooking up with a new lady.
At this point the viewer starts to sense that the open and friendly relation between him and his housekeeper Minta (Lillian Hall-Davis) might be a bit deeper, than just the professional one. Minty is always springing around eneregetically to make sure she does the best possible job for her employer and this is in great contrast to the behavior of the women they list up together on a piece of paper. Minty obviously has feelings for Sweetland but cannot find a way to express them.
Sweetland heads out to seek the widows one by one. But they all reject him since they have enough in their own life and other excuses. no matter how sweet or direct he is, none of them hooks on his bait. Very disappointed he must face his destiny of being wifeless for the rest of his life.
This widow journey he has ventured on has a rather misplaced slapstick feel to it that I do not think is Hitchcocks strong side. The widows are charicatured too much so that he secure´s the viewers need to want the sweet and emphatic minty to become his wife. If the widows were lovely and virtouos, he would not likely end up asking minty for marriage.
But the mediocre second act is balanced out with a very well done, toned down and delicately portrayed third part, where Sweetland finally realizes what he might have known all along. He loves the sweet and virtuous Minty, who has served him so well and that he has always had such a friendly and joyous relation with. He starts to see the person and not the housekeeper and this is basically the morale that Hitch finally reaches.
Lillian Hall Davis who plays Minty does a really good job of standing out as the gentle and devoted housekeeper who finds herself overwhelmed with emotions when the man she loves finds out that he loves her. There is just something mesmerizing about her persona and radiation. Overall it is a mediocre movie and only one for the true fans of Hitch. There are not even really any of his usual expressionist bits, as is "The Ring" or "The Lodger", and that is not quite enough for even the biggest movie fan I would presume.
Rating: 5
