Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Farmer’s Wife (1928)

Alfred Hitchcock’s seventh film as a director was this pleasant little British comedy. And while a few of Hitchcock’s better-known films have comic elements to them — such as The Trouble with Harry (1955) and the black Family Plot (1976) — and Hitchcock was well known to have a wry sense of humor, the thought of a Hitchcock comedy will make many film buffs stop and ponder the incongruousness of a suspense master directing a light drawing-room comedy.

In the silent era, when he was just starting his tremendous film career, Hitchcock was something of a utility director. A small number of his silent films were love triangle films, others were dramas of manners. Only one, The Lodger (1926), was an indication of the suspense master Hitchcock was to come. Hitchcock’s next thriller was his first sound film and his tenth film as director, 1929’s Blackmail.

An English farmer (Jameson Thomas), a man of good means, has been recently widowed. At the marriage of his daughter, the farmer begins entertaining the idea of wedding again. With the help of his housemaid, he considers his local marriage options and creates a list of potential brides. Armed with his considerable arrogance and a farmer’s practicality, he begins ‘courting’ his future brides. After a small number of comic rebuffs, the farmer is thoroughly discouraged. His quest continues through the support of his housemaid (Lilian Hall-Davis), much to the consternation of the farm’s coarse and uncouth main man, Gordon Harker as Churdles Ash. The Farmer’s Wife is a pleasant little story that grows on the viewer over multiple viewings.

— Carl Bennett

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano and digital keyboards by Jon C. Mirsalis.

Supplemental material includes audio commentary on The Ring by Nick Pinkerton; audio commentaries on Champagne and The Manxman by Farran Smith Nehme; the Hitchcock early sound film, The Skin Game (1931); and an audio excerpt from Hitchcock/Truffaut with François Truffaut interviewing Hitchcock (20 minutes total).

This is our recommended home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is also available directly from . . .

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano and digital keyboards by Jon C. Mirsalis.

Supplemental material includes audio commentary on The Ring by Nick Pinkerton; audio commentaries on Champagne and The Manxman by Farran Smith Nehme; the Hitchcock early sound film, The Skin Game (1931); and an audio excerpt from Hitchcock/Truffaut with François Truffaut interviewing Hitchcock (20 minutes total).

This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

This Hitchcock PAL DVD boxset contains the Optimum DVD edition of The Farmer’s Wife, which one of the very few home video editions that has been transferred from 35mm print materials.

It has been noted that the music accompanying the film is not the best.

The supplmentary material includes an introduction by Noel Simsolo and a photograph gallery.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 2 PAL DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Of this DVD edition, the first to appear on DVD but far from the only home video version, we can say that it could have been better but is probably still worth the low cost to own. The material utilized for the video transfer appears to be a good 35mm print or a very-good 16mm print, and the transfer runs at a proper speed.

Some speckling and some print flaws are visible throughout the film. Some compression artifacts are visible in some flat light-to-middle greytones on both standard and HD monitors. At times, picture jitter can be distracting. The video transfer can be described overall as uneven. While some shots are quite pleasing, with good middle greytones and good picture detail, highlights are a little hot in places and shadow details are plugged up by too much print or transfer contrast. And while most of the picture framing is open, some intertitles (and the cast credits) will be cropped off on some televisions and are sometimes too dark to read. Hand-written identification numbers written in ink on the negative used to strike the print show up as large white distractions throughout the film. From the third reel, cropping feels tighter as some heads are cropped off at the top of the frame. Glitches in the video master used for the digital transfer mar the second half of the film.

The music score for this DVD edition has been cobbled together from various canned sources. Taped orchestral music has been combined with 78 RPM records and edited into a serviceable soundtrack that is as varied in quality as is the video picture. Some thought was put into the sequencing and the music does help to convey mood. A vocal recording was intelligently chosen to accompany a scene that features a men’s glee club.

Altogether, we still prefer and recommend the out-of-print Republic Pictures Home Video VHS videotape version of The Farmer’s Wife as the best version currently available. While the videotape has no soundtrack at all, the picture material is consistently of very good quality, being taken from a 35mm print source. The Laserlight DVD version is serviceable and will probably still be the version of choice of those collectors who adamantly prefer DVD over videotape.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Our first look at this budget DVD collection of Hitchcock films reveals a good full-frame video transfer of a very-good 16mm reduction print, only to have it compromised by a cheaply-manufactured disc that is marred by a higher-than-usual number of video master playback glitches.

The quality is pretty much a push compared to the Laserlight edition noted above, neither being ideal but merely passable.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Another low-budget DVD edition, compromized by deep image blacks that swallow up shadow detail and some of the intertitles. The video transfer speed is too fast in the first reel, reproducing the action at flitting speed when compared to other editions. The transfer runs at closer to natural speed later in the film, but also features some blasted-out highlights.

The film is accompanied by a number of preexisting recordings or varying sound quality, abruptly edited together in an attempt to appropriately accompany the current scene.

Not recommended, as there are other editions of the film that are marginally better.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This budget DVD edition has been transferred from a good to very-good 16mm reduction print, which has a not-unexpected amount of dust, speckling, schmutz, frame jitters, scrapes, scratches and other print flaws.

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings — pops, crackles and hiss included at no extra charge.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This budget DVD edition has been transferred from a good to very-good 16mm reduction print, which has a not-unexpected amount of dust, speckling, schmutz, frame jitters, scrapes, scratches and other print flaws.

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings — pops, crackles and hiss included at no extra charge.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This repackaged DVD edition of the 2007 Mill Creek edition noted above has been transferred from a good to very-good 16mm reduction print, which has a not-unexpected amount of dust, speckling, schmutz, frame jitters, scrapes, scratches and other print flaws.

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings — pops, crackles and hiss included at no extra charge.

The supplementary material includes a ‘documentary’ The Story of Alfred Hitchock in 16:9 widescreen (22 minutes); and a collection of Hitchcock film trailers (39 minutes).

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This budget DVD edition has been transferred from a 16mm reduction print that is of reasonable quality.

The film is presented with a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase support Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This inexpensive three-disc DVD edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print and there are no positive quality surprises. The disc looks much the same as the other budget editions noted here. This edition has been made even worse by a “Screen Gems” diamond logo placed in the upper right corner of the picture throughout the film presentation. This is done to discourage pirated copies but since it is likely this edition was pirated from another, earlier crappy edition, this precaution is ludicrous and only serves to annoy collectors who don’t want the logo there at all.

The film is likely to be presented with a music score comprised of preexisting recordings.

While this disc was manufactured in the EU it appears to be mastered in NTSC for the North American market.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is likely to be accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 2 PAL DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 2 PAL DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is likely to be accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Other BRITISH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.