Hitch's best

Rating: 10/10 (15 March 1999)

Hitchcock always called PSYCHO his "fun" picture. It seems to me this film, which is my favorite of his, would fit that term better (though PSYCHO, a great film, may have been more fun for him, because it was probably less of a hassle physically to shoot, and because it appealed to his warped sense of humor), since this basically kids the genre he helped invent, the suspense thriller. The plot, when you think about it, is a remake of his own THE 39 STEPS, and although I'm not a Hitchcock expert, others could probably point out echoes of other of his films in this one. At the same time, it still manages to be quite suspenseful.
Cary Grant was one of Hitchcock's favorite actors, and it's easy to see why; he lends a class and glamour to the film, yet allows himself to be put in all sorts of sticky situations which he is able to escape from, no matter how narrowly. Eve Marie Saint is one of the best leading ladies he ever had, generating not only sex appeal but mystery. Leo G. Carroll is quite good as The Professor, and I wonder if he was an inspiration for George Smiley. Martin Landau is slimy as Leonard. But besides Grant, the best performance here is by James Mason, who avoids going over-the-top to just ooze malice. I especially liked his last line; "Not very sporting, using real bullets." There are so many classic scenes it's hard to list them all, and Bernard Hermann's score is excellent as well.