The Man Who Won (1932): A dusty relic or a hidden gem?

Is it worth your time?

If you have a thing for black-and-white British cinema from the early thirties, yeah, give The Man Who Won a spin. If you need pacing that doesn't feel like a brisk walk through a library, maybe skip it.

It’s for the folks who like spotting actors before they became household names. It is definitely not for anyone who gets impatient when a movie stops to explain its own plot points twice.

The vibe check

The whole thing feels like it was filmed inside a box. Everything is super tight, very polite, and slightly stiff, which is exactly what you expect from 1932. Lola Duncan is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

There’s a scene about halfway through—you know the one—where the dialogue just drags on until I started looking at my own fingernails. It wasn't bad writing, just... very, very wordy.

Random thoughts

• The lighting in the study scene is actually kind of moody? Maybe it was an accident.
• The supporting cast seems to have been told to stand as still as statues.
• It’s got that same weird, stage-bound energy you see in The Fifth Wheel.

I kept waiting for someone to trip over the furniture. Nobody did, though.

Final musings

It's not trying to change the world. It’s just trying to tell a story about pride and falling down and getting back up again. Sometimes, that’s plenty.

It reminded me a bit of the stuffy tension in The Net, but with more tea and less urgency. ☕️

I left the screen feeling like I’d just had a very long conversation with someone’s grandfather. It wasn't thrilling, but it had a certain honesty to it. Worth a look if you’re curious about the era.