Is that plane really after me? Kafkesque

Rating: 10/10 (22 July 2018)

Like all absurdist theatre, this is suffused with comedy. It is absurd like Gregor Samsa turned into a cockroach. Absurd like the prophet Job tested by God at the behest of Satan to test Job's faith. And we all know by now, that the Book of Job should be read with a laugh track: Eliphar, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu provide irrelevant (and hence unintended absurdist comedy) commentary to Job's affliction. Absurdist like the twists and turns of Oliver Twist... You get the idea.
Cary Grant is not playing Cary Grant, he really plays a man bewildered by the chain of events that have beset him. Watch his facial expression as he is drunk driving the car and drunk in the police station; that is acting. He plays the role of absurdity straight, unaware till the end of the parameters of the absurd. And there is nothing more absurd than the spy agencies with the numerous twists and turns in the defense of a nation's integrity. And in the end, the assertion of love (Grant & Eva Marie Saint) is an assertion of sanity and denial of absurdity.
But there is unmistakable and intentional comedy in the auction scene where Grant seemingly channels Leo G. Carroll's TV Cosmo Topper's vocal cadences in making irrelevant bids which end up as absurdist non-sequiturs just as Cosmo Topper did. And Grant played the role of ghost George Kirby to Roland Young's Cosmos Topper; while Leo G. Carroll was the TV Cosmo Topper; now that is Hitchcock comedy at its finest!
How long should the drama be? As long as it takes to explain something. And sure enough, each part of the unfolding drama contains the needed time for the suspense: the endless road in the corn field adds for the cinematic suspense as does the lone individual waiting for a bus. ("Waiting for Godot") The scene in the Restaurant where Eva Marie Saint shoots Grant with a fake gun. ("The Sting")The scene with Eva Marie Saint in the Hotel Room. The scene at the house just before he warns Eva Marie Saint, that she has been found out. And so on. Each of these scenes have suspense from beginning to end. Even as they harken to other dramatic performances encapsulating absurdity, even if planned absurdity as in "The Sting."

This may be Grant's best and finest performance; this may be Hitchcock's best and finest film production, to rival "The 39 Steps". the cast of Grant, Mason, and Eva Marie Saint give the proper balance; Leo G. Carroll is a plus.