“I certainly admire people who do things”

So this is one of Hitchcock’s older films and sadly I think it shows in some areas. 

To get right into the meat of this, once again I found the main idea of the screenplay here very inticing and very intriguing, as an idea that some of us may have explored, if we wanted to kill someone how would we do it? The exploration of the ideas here are actually done pretty well. My fault with the screenplay itself in its details. I wish Guy’s character felt less stale, and robotic. I couldn’t tell if it was the actor or the material but there was something missing there. The same could be said about Robert Walker’s character. However in that case his backstory of how his character cane to be is left pretty ambiguous aside from some at home struggles implied early in the film. To me I think the film could have benefited from exploration why he was this way a little more, I just felt this film was going for a pretty grounded tone and I thought that would fit better. At times the screenplay feels a little clunky in its execution but overall the main idea I found very inticing, if at times missing a few elements that could carry it to an all time great. There’s just a few bits and pieces here and there you pick up on that a more seasoned Hitchcock would have tightened up. 

Technically, this movie is older and it shows. The oldest movie I’ve seen it Citizen Kane, and it was interesting to see the same soundtrack sounds and titlecards but see the development in the more technical aspects of the film. Mainly the cinematography, which I thought was a very interesting aspect of this film. There is one amazing shot of a reflection off of some glasses that I found pretty impressive. There’s also some very interesting Micheal Myers like stalking imagery when it comes to Bruno’s character. That’s one thing I thought about during this. Many times John Carpenter has been quoted saying he took inspiration from Hitchcock’s Psycho for Halloween. It makes me wonder if he took the inspiration for “The Shape” AKA Micheal Myers from the stalker imagery that Bruno’s character is portrayed with. I just made the connection, maybe there’s something there maybe there isn’t but it’s something I noticed. 

Another aspect of this I picked up on was the injection of some humeruous elements in here. Whether it’s Bruno’s dialogue, or Bruno Popping some kids balloon with his cigarette, I enjoyed the injection of humor into this one, which as it seems Hitchcock would later abandon for atmospheric tension purposes I still enjoyed it in here, even if one or two jokes didn’t land. 

Overall, I did enjoy this film quite a lot, this is indeed my least favourite of Hitchcock’s films,but it’s still getting a 4/5. This film makes sense to me, as this film is not as tight and fine tuned as his later films, which in the middle of this investigation, you could call it, he developed overtime, which makes complete sense. However the flaws are still there, I’m just happy he worked out the kinks to give us Psycho, Rear window and Vertigo (To be continued)