the last of the great Hitchcock films

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 2001)

This is, in my view, the last of the great Hitchcock films. I agree with the reviewer who said that only "Rear Window" keeps it from being THE best. It's a pleasure to view from beginning to end. Hitch's later films (even "Psycho" and "The Birds") are markedly inferior. The story is a reprise of the director's favourite plot line--the innocent man falsely accused of committing a crime and who has to flee his pursuers and clear his name--but with a twist. Grant is being chased from two directions: by international spies who believe he's a counterspy and by the police who believe he's a murderer. Hitch's typically morbid sense of humour is in evidence throughout, and the entire film is magnificently tongue in cheek. Bernard Herrmann's gripping score is arguably a co-star, right along with Grant, Saint and Mason. It's difficult to imagine what the movie would have been like without the composer's agitated musical phrases that never seem to find resolution. The weak link is Saint, whose acting is wooden and whose screen presence cannot begin to equal those of Grace Kelly ("To Catch a Thief", "Rear Window") and Kim Novak ("Vertigo"). Had Kelly not married her prince and had she appeared in this film, it would have been even more of a masterpiece. Try to imagine Kelly as Eve Kendall and see if you don't agree.
Railfans and longtime residents of Chicago will notice that one of the scenes was filmed in the old LaSalle Street Station, torn down in 1980 and for decades the western terminus for the New York Central's famous Twentieth Century train. Hitch's penchant for filming action on trains is once again evident in this film.