I hadn't watched that many Silent Hitchcock films prior to this one - THE LODGER (1926), THE RING (1927) and the rarely-screened "original" version of BLACKMAIL (1929) - but they were good ones; I knew going in this wouldn't be a thriller but it was still a disappointment, coming from one of my favorite film-makers! Melodrama was never Hitchcock's forte and the pseudo-realistic background of a fishing community only accentuates further the director's incompatibility with the material at hand. That said, the film is nicely photographed and the resolution of the main plot is unconventional, to say the least - as the girl (played by the lovely Anny Ondra, who also starred in BLACKMAIL) chooses the company of the scholarly, upper-class lover over her rugged, more handsome husband!
Review of The Manxman
