MovieChat Forums > The Whip Hand (1951) Discussion > 'The Man He Found' no doubt lost forever

'The Man He Found' no doubt lost forever

posted 15 years ago by hobnob53
10 replies | jump to latest

As noted elsewhere, The Whip Hand was originally a thriller entitled The Man He Found, with the villains being fugitive Nazis (not Commie spies) developing germ warfare weapons at a secluded spot in the American Midwest. This already fantastic premise was made the more so when it's discovered that Adolf Hitler himself is alive and directing operations in Wisconsin!

However far-fetched this plot may sound, it is vastly more intriguing than the movie it was turned into, The Whip Hand. The Man He Found was actually completed, but before it was released RKO's eccentric and virulently anti-Communist boss, Howard Hughes, saw it and decreed that Nazis were passe, and demanded that the film be extensively re-written and re-shot, with the villains now Soviet spies. The resultant film is okay, but the original sounds like it was far more interesting. I mean, Hitler in Wisconsin? (Maybe Hughes thought this was a slur on Joe McCarthy.)

Anyway, I assume the original footage has long since vanished or been destroyed. Too bad -- it would have been great if it had somehow survived and could be reassembled, for a look at the (perhaps) better film that never was...or, more accurately, that was, but got strangled at birth.

HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHES!!!!!!

P.S. Elliott Reid -- the hero? Finding Hitler seems less unlikely.

[–] babettegillette 11 years ago

Found it on IOFFER. The seller was FLATOUT. Pretty good bootleg. :>)

[–] hobnob53 11 years ago

Hi babettegillette -- Did you find The Whip Hand or The Man He Found? I assumed the latter no longer existed. Also, can you tell me the price, and IOFFER's web address? Thanks so much!

[–] James_Byrne 11 years ago

This movie sounds really interesting, but I agree with you, hob, the Hitler original would have been much better.

http://www.secretoftheincas.co.ukhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE

[–] hobnob53 11 years ago

Even the original isn't available on DVD, and is rarely broadcast. It does have zombies of a kind in it, the products of medical experiments by formerly Nazi Communists, which is kind of neat. I think some of them are in the Wisconsin Congressional delegation, members of the party that consists of brain-dead legislators who duly vote in lock-step.

Separately, I'm also annoyed because I'm certain I had a goof listed in this film's section, but nothing is there now. Unfortunately I can't recall what it was exactly, but it had something to do with a large map of the USA shown at the beginning of the movie. It was a scene in Moscow, and the map was in Russian, which impressed me for such a cheap picture (even the military man giving the lecture was speaking real Russian), but there was a mistake in something written on the map, which I submitted and had accepted, several years ago. Now it's gone...and I can't even remember what it was! Oh, well, next time I see it I'll check it out, and re-submit if necessary.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

... it had something to do with a large map of the USA shown at the beginning of the movie. It was a scene in Moscow, and the map was in Russian ...

Hi Hobnob,
Are we talking about The Whip Hand here, because in the version I saw there's no such scene? It just begins with Matt Corbin fishing at the lake and getting caught in a storm.

It certainly appears that 'The Man He Found' is lost forever.

BTW

... Nazi Communists ...

Only the early fifties could come up with that concept.🐭

[–] hobnob53 9 years ago

Hey spookyrat,

No, it's definitely The Whip Hand. No doubt whatsoever. They show stock footage of the Kremlin, then go inside to the Commie officer giving his report (untranslated) and pointing to the map of America. At the end he points to the tiny burg in Wisconsin where their heinous plot is underway. Cut to what's-his-face happily fishing in his bland ignorance.

I'm assuming what you saw was a cut print. Or maybe The Man He Found?!

Nah.

Oh, about that mixed ideology concept...it's not just in the 50s. In the 90s, there was an episode of The Simpsons that began with Grandpa and his pal from the Springfield Retirement Castle in a movie theater watching the latest "McBain" film. McBain is flying a jet loaded with Unicef pennies when he's attacked by enemy jets bearing both a swastika and the hammer and sickle. McBain radios in in his Ah-nold voice, "Am unduh attack by Kah-mie Naht-zees" and as they begin firing McBain makes his way back to the cargo hold and parachutes the crate of pennies to safety, calling after them, "Fly, pennies, fly! Save the little children!"

Yeah, well, it was actually better than The Whip Hand. Anyway, wasn't it Commie Nazis who built the Soviet missile program? Elliot Reid would know.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

Hi Hob,

The version that I recently saw, must be an alternative print. There was definitely no Kremlin intro. It just began with Matt Corbin fishing and getting caught in a storm.

I guess in that respect it worked as the unveiling of a mystery.

The history behind this film is much more interesting than the film itself.🐭

[–] hobnob53 9 years ago

Hi spooky,

I think not so much an alternate print (in the usual sense, as a separately produced version made by the studio) as simply an edited one -- whoever ran it either cut it or showed one that had been cut.

But you hit the mark when you said that the history of this film is much more interesting than the film itself. I've found that to be true of some other films, which usually means the end product was hardly worth the effort...unless they just wanted to give us a neat behind-the-scenes story!

[–] babettegillette 11 years ago

Sorry about the delay. Flatout offers The Whip Hand. He is a very good seller. However, no box art or disc art.

[–] hobnob53 11 years ago

Okay, thank you, b-g. For a moment I thought you'd found The Man He Found. Alas!