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Three figures stand apart at a pale seawall, looking in different directions.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

Romantic drama

The Manxman

RomanticBleak Great first watch · Easy Romantic drama

Two lifelong friends love the same woman on the Isle of Man, and a promise made before one man leaves creates a private tragedy on his return.

Year
1929
Director
Alfred Hitchcock
Country
United Kingdom
Length
100 min
Language
English

What to expect

Hitchcock uses landscape, social position, and restrained gesture to make desire collide with loyalty. The triangle grows painful because each person understands duty differently and speaks too late.

How to ease in

Keep Pete, Philip, and Kate at the centre. The legal and social details matter mainly because they determine which feelings can be acknowledged in public.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes infidelity, pregnancy, attempted suicide, emotional coercion, class pressure, and sustained distress.
Momo's Note May contain spoilers Who is Momo? →
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The sea suggests departure, but every promise pulls the characters back into the same small circle. I watch silence change from protection into a way of making decisions for someone else.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Version map

BFI National Archive restoration presentation100 min100 minutes is attached only to the named BFI National Archive restoration presentation. No unsupported cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration detail is inferred.Source: British Film Institute — The ManxmanRuntime reference · Checked 2026-08-21

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