1928
Alfred Hitchcock
The Farmer’s Wife was adapted from a hugely popular comedic play by Eden Philpotts. Hitchcock was worried that the stage roots might show through in his film adaptation whilst Truffaut observed that it was shot ‘like a thriller’.
A morose widowed farmer Samuel Sweetland (Jameson Thomas) is unsure about which of the local women he should select as his new wife. He thinks that these spinsters will be happy to have him, so he’s surprised when he is rejected by each in turn. The farmer ultimately discovers what, or rather who, has been literally staring him – and the audience – in the face all the time: his young, attractive and devoted housekeeper.
Often very funny, the film is directed with great subtlety; particularly in two virtuoso party scenes, where Hitchcock’s use of long takes and his meticulous choreography of a large group of actors is superb.
Written by Leslie Arliss, Alfred Hitchcock, J.E. Hunter, Norman Lee, Eliot Stannard
The Farmer’s Wife features two different scores:
A piano score composed and performed by Neil Brand
A score composed and performed Jon C. Mirsalis
Please note The Farmer’s Wife is only available as part of the Hitchcock The Beginning blu-ray box-set
For the 2012 restoration of The Farmer’s Wife, an international search established that the earliest available sources for the film were two preservation intermediates made from the camera negative in the 1960s. After careful selection, the best sections were scanned from both, to form the basis of the restoration.
A restoration by the BFI National Archive in association with STUDIOCANAL. Restoration funding provided by Matt Spick. Additional funding provided by Deluxe 142
