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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.

After his wife dies, and their daughter marries, lonely widowed farmer Jameson Thomas (as Samuel Sweetland) decides to look for holy matrimony with another woman. With the help of devoted housekeeper Lillian Hall-Davis (as Minta Dench) and handyman Gordon Harker (as Churdles Ash), Mr. Thomas proposes to three matronly prospects: independent widow Louie Pounds (as Louisa Windeatt), frigid spinster Maud Gill (as Thirza Tapper), and pillowy postmistress Olga Slade (as Mary Hearn). None of the women prove to be satisfactory, but Thomas' ideal mate is closer than he thinks…

If "The Farmer's Wife" were filmed a few years earlier, in Hollywood, with Wallace Reid and Norma Shearer, we might have had four decades of romantic Alfred Hitchcock comedies… well, maybe not. Anyway, it's a good silent moving picture. The opening sequence, which shows the sad passing of the farmer's wife, is very effective; it's a good change from the original play, considering the silent film medium. But, this film is too long, with the daughter's marriage immediately and unnecessarily dragging the story down; moreover, the ending is drawn out. Mr. Hitchcock's food filming fetish is evident throughout - nobody touches Ms. Gill's gelatin!

****** The Farmer's Wife (3/2/28) Alfred Hitchcock ~ Jameson Thomas, Lillian Hall-Davis, Gordon Harker, Maud Gill

"The Farmer's Wife" is a charming rustic, semi-romantic comedy from the silent picture era. Without seeing the credits, you might never guess that it was made by the "Master of Suspense", Alfred Hitchcock - but if you know who the director was, it is easy to see the masterful touches Hitchcock was known for.

The story is a simple one. Farmer Sweetland (Jameson Thomas) has lost his beloved wife some time ago, and comes to decide that he should marry again. He methodically evaluates, and plans to propose to, all of the eligible women he can think of. But all the while he overlooks the best, and obvious (to the audience) choice: his devoted housekeeper Araminta (Lillian Hall-Davis, who is charming in the role). "Minta" is far wiser, sweeter, and prettier than the other candidates, and she also cares for Sweetland in a way they never will. The plot, therefore, revolves around whether he will figure this out before he gets stuck with an unsuitable mate instead.

Hitchcock applies the creativity and attention to detail that he would later use in his great suspense films, and makes out of a simple plot a movie that is very funny, and also at times quite touching. A great deal of the characters' feelings and thoughts are communicated without dialogue cards, through masterful silent camera work. The most powerful recurring image is a pair of chairs near the fireplace, where Farmer Sweetland had obviously spent many happy hours with his dear departed first wife. Early in the film, as he hosts a wedding dinner for his daughter, he begins to look longingly at the chairs, and we know what he is thinking even before the dialogue cards tell us. As the film proceeds, we occasionally come back to the fireplace, and eventually "Minta" begins to sit with him by the fireplace, sympathizing and helping with his disappointed matrimonial projects. The suggestion is obvious to everyone but Sweetland.

In the lead role, Thomas responds to Hitchcock's direction, sometimes making his character appear somewhat ridiculous in his miscalculated plans, and at other times evoking our complete sympathy and pity for his loneliness. The rest of the cast works very well too, especially Gordon Harker, whose expert comic timing plays wonderfully in the role of Farmer Sweetland's handyman.

There is one long, hilarious comic sequence, at a house party hosted by one of Sweetland's prospective mates, and you have to watch it two or three times to catch all of the detail Hitchcock packed into the sequence. The rest of the movie is filled with lighter comic touches, and concentrates on giving us a surprisingly tender look at the characters' lives.

Hitchcock fans should take delight in seeing how the master used his talents in such a different genre, and any fan of romantic comedies who is willing to try a silent film should also enjoy "The Farmer's Wife".

I saw this years ago, enjoyed but forgot about it. On retrospect it seems a very long drawn out 96 minute comedy film with a flimsy plot, even so I wonder what a 129 minute version would be like.

Jameson Thomas plays thicko widower farmer who can't see beyond the end of his nose when it comes to looking to honour a woman by marrying him. It's obvious from the first reel what the story will be and the eventual conclusion, but for all that it's still well worth watching. Some of the outdoor shots are delightful, portraying the English countryside impressionistically, the indoor usually portray people in the throes of pigging themselves within slapstick routines. The farmers' handyman Gordon Harker was even stranger than his master, with make up absolutely caked on his face for some reason.

Altogether, a nice little film, totally inconsequential but with some nice touches from Hitch and fluid camera movements, all helping maintain interest.

Slight but enjoyable early Alfred Hitchcock movie about a widower (Jameson Thomas) who sets out to find a new wife with help from his loyal housekeeper (Lillian Hall-Davis). It's a charming and touching story. Not quite what you would expect from the eventual Master of Suspense. It's a good-looking film, as well. Thomas and Davis are both likable. Gordon Harker is fun as the farmer's handyman, Churdles Ash. Love that name. It's nothing to get worked up over but a pleasant enough film that's worth a look to more than just Hitchcock completists.

This early Hitchcock silent, his first for British International Pictures, is a simple romantic comedy adapted from a stage play. A far cry from crime and suspense, but at this point Hitchcock had neither the influence nor the realisation of his true forte to select his projects.

As with all but one of the Hitchcock silents, the screenplay was by Eliot Stannard. Stannard, with his typical understanding of the visual medium, dispenses with the wordiness of a direct stage-to-screen adaptation. He allows time for the characters to reveal their feelings in reaction shots and point-of-view shots, and replaces verbal gags with visual ones. The Farmer's Wife is thus as devoid of unnecessary intertitles as, say, The Manxman.

Given its rural setting, Hitchcock was more or less obliged to include some shots of rolling hillsides. Hitch doesn't seem to have liked the countryside much – in most of his later films if it appears at all it's as a functional back-projection – but he doesn't do too badly here as far as pure photographic beauty goes. Other than that the shooting style is typical of Hitchcock. There is a growing use of fluid camera movement, and we can see that Hitchcock technique, whereby the camera appears to be leading the audience, gradually revealing to us or drawing us in.

Whether it comes from Stannard's script or Hitchcock's head I don't know, but there is a massive tendency here towards point-of-view shots during dialogue scenes, in which the other speaker looks straight into camera. The majority of these are rather pointless, with the exception of several appropriately ghastly close-ups of the Farmer's bridal candidates.

To say the conclusion of The Farmer's Wife is predictable would be a grand understatement. A shortsighted person could see it coming through several miles of fog. Not a bad thing in itself, but rather than play upon its obviousness (which Stannard and Hitchcock must have been aware of), the picture simply becomes a tedious game of waiting for the inevitable. The Farmer's Wife is only quite funny, and is altogether too long.

Of the 30 or so Hitchcock films I've seen so far, this was by far my least favorite. It has some rare Hitchcock touches, as with the superimposed "candidates" in the chair (I loved it when Minta sat down to take their place). Overall I found it predictable and boring, and entertaining only in spots. I knew pretty much exactly what was going to happen as soon as they started making the list.

Still, it serves as a window into the world of 70+ years ago, and is an interesting glimpse into the early career of the greatest director who has ever lived.

Alfred Hitchcock- my personal favourite director- has done better with the likes of Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, Rebecca, The Lady Vanishes, Strangers on a Train and North By Northwest but he has also done worse with Juno and the Paycock, Champagne, Number Seventeen, Jamaica Inn, Topaz and Under Capricorn(though all have their redeeming merits). The Farmer's Wife is neither among the best or worst of Hitchcock, but it is still well worth watching and among the better of his silent films. It is too long, can get pedestrian and somewhat too slight in places(with a beginning that takes a little too long to set up) and the music score can feel repetitive. However, it is well shot and has lovely scenery, one of the better looking films of Hitchcock's silent era. Prepare yourself for a lot of point-of-view camera shots but they are not distracting at all(some may think differently though). Hitchcock directs with assurance and technical skill though he has done better in films more in his comfort zone. With the house party there are many subtle touches where you are thinking "yeah, this is unmistakably Hitchcock". The comedy is funny and charming if occasionally falling on the broad side, thankfully it is not overplayed and played with a degree of subtlety while making clear that the actors are enjoying themselves. The story is not always involving but does have its charms and you will be drawn in by the comedy and the likable if stock characters, it may have its slow spots but stick with it. The ending is very touching. The acting is good, again at times broad but not too much or that continuous. Gordon Harker is the standout and is immensely fun to watch, though Lillian Hall-Davies is suitably sympathetic and Jameson Thomas carries the film competently(his character is not easy to warm to straight away this said). Overall, interesting and providing that you don't expect masterpiece status- this is early Hitchcock where he was still finding his feet/style in a way- is also a good film. 7/10 Bethany Cox

If you loved Sir Alfred Hitchcock and his contributions and services to the film industry, you should see all of his films for study and preservation. This is one of his early silent films. If you have the patience to watch a two hour silent film, it's not that easy. We're so used to speeches and conversations that we forget to watch and see their facial reactions in the early age of cinema. This film is more comedic than dark and dramatic. While the story is more farcical, it is nice to see Hitchcock have a sense of humor since he became more known for the macabre in his films. It is not hard to believe that film audiences didn't laugh and enjoy this film in the cinema in 1928 long before the Great Depression. Still, I would watch it again if I had too. It's not a bad film. You wouldn't know Hitchcock directed it.

A wealthy, widowed farmer, Samuel Sweetland, decides to remarry. He hasn't got any particular woman in mind and asks his housekeeper, Minta, to recommend suitable women from the village. He courts the women on the list but nothing seems to work out.

An Alfred Hitchcock romantic comedy. Yep, that's not a term you hear too often and having watched this I can see why. Admittedly this was in Hitchcock's early, silent era, years before he became the master of the thriller and was still trying his hand at all sorts of films.

I use "comedy" quite loosely as it's really not that funny. The film is quite conventional and dull and the plot, especially the ending, is very predictable.

The version I watched also had no sound at all - no score even - making engagement even more limited.

Only worth watching if you're determined to watch all of Hitchcock's films (as I am).

The DVD version I have of 'The Farmer's Wife' is part of five disc 'The Hitchcock Collection', that range from this 1928 silent onward.

It is also the poorest DVD of the bunch, both in terms of technical quality - and I'm talking mostly of the poor transfer than the actual film-making and the story itself. The transfer quality is noticeably soft but flicker and blemishes are well controlled but the sound, unusually for a significant 'silent' is also disappointing, the classical music accompaniment still being in mono, whereas most have been re-recorded in modern stereo by now. I cannot say what standard other releases etc are.

These aspects mean that the story never really comes alive and create a barrier to full enjoyment of the film. With very few written notice boards telling us what's happening it's mostly guesswork and we just end up watching lots of people moving about quickly.

I do enjoy a good Silent film but the genre can get tedious when they're not top-notch - and this very early Hitchcock just isn't. As for the direction, it's proficient but simply workmanlike and does all it should for this type of period comedy drama, so anyone looking for clever camera-work, or even a hint at copying what the leading German directors of the time were doing, will be disappointed.

I'm also very aware that I'm only watching it because it is a Hitchcock and because I'm reviewing it, which isn't necessarily a good thing...

After the death of his beloved wife Tibby, the prosperous farmer Samuel "Sammy" Sweetland (Jameson Thomas) marries his beloved daughter with the support of his loyal housekeeper Minta (Lillian Hall-Davis) and his handyman Ash (Gordon Harker). Before dying, Tibby asks Sammy to marry again, and now he prepares a list of possible of names of single women to be his wife with Minta. However, he is successively rejected by the women he chooses, until he finds who really loves him.

"The Farmer's Wife" (1928) is a delightful movie by Alfred Hitchcock, with a predictable but highly entertaining story. The plot is funny, with clumsy Samuel Sweetland approaching each woman and committing gaffe to all of them. Lillian Hall-Davis performs a sweet and lovely character, and her fate could not be different. The DVD released in Brazil by Universal is completely restored with wonderful image. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Mulher do Fazendeiro" ("The Farmer's Wife")

In all honesty I'm not big on romantic comedies - very few of them I actually enjoy and love - most of them are quite boring to me and this film has bored me to tears. Maybe one of these days I will go back to watch this film and enjoy it - but I doubt that. There is NOTHING wrong with this movie - it's cute and all - but as I have stated I'm not into most romantic comedies.

I'm sorry I do not like this film - I want to because it's Hitchcock but I don't. I like my Alfred Hitchcock thrilling, mysterious and horrifying and this film is definitely totally opposite of my favorite side of Hitchcock.

This film is worth while if you enjoy silent movies and/or romantic comedies. It's just not a film for me.

3/10

I have both versions, long and short, of "The Farmer's Wife", and they are identical except for the speed at which they were recorded onto tape/DVD. I strongly recommend against the 129-minute version, as it is slower than real-life speed and drags the humor from the film. The shorter version is much funnier and more like Hitchcock, whose films weren't known for their dragginess.

Jameson Thomas, who plays Samuel Sweetland, was at the time of filming a huge star in England. In 1930 he and his wife left England for Hollywood, where he played a few leads in "B" pictures and then settled into a continuous second lead/character groove. He's the doctor at the end of "The Invisible Man" who tells Henry Travers of Claude Rains' demise: "I'm afraid the end will be rather terrible." He also played Mr. Semple, the twitchy false heir, in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town."

Hitchcock's silent career is mostly a window into the burgeoning technical skills of a future master. However, that beings said, there are certainly little gems in there that stand on their own as legitimate entertainments, and The Farmer's Wife is definitely one of those. It stands apart from what Hitchcock had become known for and The Lodger had already demonstrated so well, but as a light romantic comedy, it's something special.

Farmer Sweetland loses his wife to an illness and marries off his daughter in the opening minutes of The Farmer's Wife. This puts him in the perfect state of mind to feel like he needs to find a wife. There are three eligible women who attend his daughter's wedding, and he sets out to marry one of them, adding a fourth to the list because he suddenly decides to. The result of this quest is eminently predictable by simply looking at the young, attractive maid in his employ that he outlines this plan to. He's not going to marry any of the four women he has her list on a little piece of paper, he's going to marry her. And yet, the journey is such a delight along the way that it's easy to forgive the film it's predictability.

Each early film of Hitchcock feels like a technical exercise in some way, and this one is no different. Hitchcock uses fades repeatedly in the opening minutes to imply the passage of time, fading from one set of trousers drying by a fire to the next to show that much time has passed from his wife's passing to his daughter's funeral. The other thing he plays with is the use of double exposures to demonstrate fantasy, going a bit further than he had gone in Downhill. We see it as Farmer Sweetland sits in his chair by the fire and looks longingly at the empty chair across from him, picturing three of the four women in the chair in succession (the fourth doesn't appear here, and to jump ahead slightly, I don't know why she's in the movie at all).

So, Farmer Sweetland goes out and has his inept interactions with the three women. The first is Ms. Windeatt, who dismisses Sweetland by saying that she's simply too independent for him. He immediately breaks down and starts insulting her in her own house. The second is the thin spinster Thirza Tapper who turns Sweetland down right before her big party because she had sworn off all men forever. He proceeds to insult her. Then, at the party, Sweetland turns to the young and plump Mary Hearn, the small town's postmistress, with whom he seems to have a good rapport. She ends up laughing off his proposal because of his age after which Sweetland proceeds to insult her. All through this, his maid, Minta, watches on and hopes for the best for her master whom she sees as kind and decent, eventually imagining herself in that seat across from him by the fire.

Then Sweetland goes to the fourth woman, the owner of the local pub, and we only see the beginning of their interaction and only the ending through a brief flashback several minutes later. Four women was simply too many (the rule of threes is a thing and has its uses), so I get the feeling that she was largely cut from the film in editing.

Of course, the movie ends where we've been predicting it would end from about minute five when Minta was introduced, and Sweetland sees the error of his ways and decides that he doesn't want an independent woman who will talk back to him, but his maid who will keep after his jacket even after he proposes to her. Hey, the movie was made in 1928.

Still, it's airy, light, and fun. A delightful little romantic comedy that attacks the viewer with several different types of comedy well. It's a fun diversion and another small victory for Hitchcock early in his burgeoning career.

An old farmer tries to get married again with the help of his housekeeper. Starts out kind of endearing but gets repetitive, because the film mainly involves the titular farmer going from one girl to the next, with each one being not quite right for him before he finally finds the "girl of his dreams." It's extremely predictable, and starts to get a little dull after a while, but the performances are pretty decent and there's some surprisingly nice scenery, which of course doesn't look that great anymore thanks to the fact I was not watching a print of the film that had been carefully preserved or remastered. 5/10