"A little more polished than the others... but I'm afraid just as obvious."

Rating: 7/10 (5 February 2001)

WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS

One of the better efforts from Alfred Hitchcock, a man who directed extremely well but generally chose substandard material.
There's a frightening lack of innovation on display here. There are the usual aerial shots, and some panning upwards, though nothing as groundbreaking as forward zoom/reverse tracking. Though as with Psycho, this is a film that doesn't need any such gimmickry.
The humour involved in any Hitchcock endeavour  his English sense of detached irony meeting the players' American Vaudevillian  jars as usual, though Cary Grant does better than most with some witty lines. It starts almost like a comic version of The Trial, with Grant caught in a fight for his life and with reasons he can't fathom. Things soon touch on vague Vertigo territory, with a "meet a duplicitous woman in a hotel room" sequence. By the end, though, the whole thing has been wrapped up as one of the director's ultimately straightest  and therefore most accessible  works.
Occasionally, the dialogue is a little trite  "War is Hell, Mr.Thornhill, even when it's a cold one"  though generally the script is quite snappy and sharp for this kind of thing. The shorthand characterisation is exemplified by Grant saying to Eva Marie Saint: "The moment I meet an attractive woman I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her." Wouldn't it be great if lines like that worked in real life? They don't, I've tried it. Worst scene is the crushingly bad exposition where the FBI discusses the plot. "Our non-existent decoy, George Kaplan, created to divert suspicion from our actual agent." All the people in the room knew about this event, so why does the Professor (Leo G. Carroll, not a good performance) need to describe it, and the elaborate movements for the ruse? Okay, it's to relay the information to the viewers, we all know that, but it's so badly done. The only high point is that before the Professor starts this clumsy dialogue sequence his shoe squeaks on the floor and it sounds like he's just broken wind. Maybe that was Hitchcock's sly comment on the script? The situation is also redeemed slightly by having the Professor later explain the plot to Grant... only to have it drowned out for the viewers by the sound of an aeroplane. The revelation of the microfilm in the statue is also delivered less than plausibly, though this again may be Hitchcock's lazy sense of humour. Avoid the need for screen realism by presenting it as a joke.
Yet despite these problems, it still largely stands up, though it's always a shock to see black actors cast only as porters or auction menials. The colour is also washed-out, and the use of filmed and scenic backdrops more than a little obvious. Though mere technicalities shouldn't prevent enjoyment of a reasonably fast-paced plot, and it does contain a passable recreation of Mount Rushmore on it's $4 million budget. This is a film that's over forty years old, after all. The crop duster attack is a sequence that has been ripped off/homaged in more films and television than can be counted, an infamous segment. And of course, the swirling, dizzying theme is brilliant. It's an enjoyable light thriller, but blown up to be hailed as a classic it can only disappoint. 7/10.