This film could have been shot without a word of dialogue - it may have been better had it been. What's good about the film? There are some nice camera set-ups and locations or simulated locations, and some nice black and white photography. That's about it. The plot is completely artificial, with gaps as wide as a barn door.
The scriptwriting is totally uninspired; an implausible story might have been raised to some interesting artistic or imaginative plain by strong dialogue and characterisation, but there is next to none. In the superfluous features accompanying this set it is interesting to note how much the commentators have to say about the character of Bruno the murderer's mother. The character makes two fairly brief appearances in film, so why so much interest? Because the excellent actor invests this small part with something human: she IS almost the only character in the film worth talking about. The rest are puppets.
Hitchcock did a number of films that are extremely dehumanised, i.e. bereft of sympathy for or interest in human complexity (as opposed to human frailty and absurdity). In these films - and this is a prime example - people are manipulated by plot contrivances, camera angles and location/set dynamics and have little or no motive force. Some will say this is the Hitchcockian perspective. Harnessed to better stories and better actors (e.g. I Confess, The Wrong Man, Sabotage, Suspicion, Marnie), the perspective can deliver genuine suspense and human interest. Indulged for its own sake, with something approaching contempt for plot coherence and characterisation, it is dreary. I have seen this film several times, always looking for something I might have missed, but it delivers less, not more, with repeated viewings.
The scriptwriting is totally uninspired; an implausible story might have been raised to some interesting artistic or imaginative plain by strong dialogue and characterisation, but there is next to none. In the superfluous features accompanying this set it is interesting to note how much the commentators have to say about the character of Bruno the murderer's mother. The character makes two fairly brief appearances in film, so why so much interest? Because the excellent actor invests this small part with something human: she IS almost the only character in the film worth talking about. The rest are puppets.
Hitchcock did a number of films that are extremely dehumanised, i.e. bereft of sympathy for or interest in human complexity (as opposed to human frailty and absurdity). In these films - and this is a prime example - people are manipulated by plot contrivances, camera angles and location/set dynamics and have little or no motive force. Some will say this is the Hitchcockian perspective. Harnessed to better stories and better actors (e.g. I Confess, The Wrong Man, Sabotage, Suspicion, Marnie), the perspective can deliver genuine suspense and human interest. Indulged for its own sake, with something approaching contempt for plot coherence and characterisation, it is dreary. I have seen this film several times, always looking for something I might have missed, but it delivers less, not more, with repeated viewings.