The Farmer's Wife

The Farmer's Wife is a 1928 British silent romantic comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jameson Thomas, Lillian Hall-Davis and Gordon Harker.

It is adapted from a 1916 play of the same name by British novelist, poet and playwright Eden Phillpotts, best known for a series of novels based on Dartmoor, in Devon. The Farmer's Wife is produced by British International Pictures at Elstree studios. The film's sets were designed by the art director Wilfred Arnold.

The Farmer's Wife (1928)

Plot

On an idyllic farm in the English countryside complete with fancy thatched manor house, small household staff, roaming geese, and two adorable twin puppies, middle-aged and appropriately named Farmer Sweetland (Jameson Thomas) waits near the deathbed of his wife whose last words are to their faithful housekeeper 'Minta (Lillian Hall-Davis) to make sure to "air the master's pants". Cut to several years later and the wedding of his daughter, where at the reception in his home he realizes how lonely he is. Declaring "There's a female or two be floating around my mind like the smell of a Sunday dinner.", the farmer decides to end his loneliness and seek a wife (and his eccentric old handyman, a real "character", is of the opinion that "To see an old man in love be worse than seeing him with the whooping cough"). Sweetland runs over the "possibles and impossibles" with 'Minta, recruiting her to help write a list. With four possible local widows and spinsters in mind, he slicks himself up and goes a-courtin', though his abilities at this are quite inept! Meanwhile, he seems to have missed the notion of the very one who may want him - his own housekeeper!