An answer to this finding a Hitchcock "mistake"

Rating: Null/10 (5 July 2001)

I just saw the movie too for the 1st time and won't bother to spend time talking about its many memoriable moments or strong points. 10 out of 10. But I do want to talk about what some other IMDB members have mentioned about the possible error Hitchcock made by revelaing a movie "secret" too early in the film (SPOLIERS AHEAD!!!) After watching many Hitchcock films and taking a class at my college last year on classic cinema, I learned of a trm called HITCHCOCKIAN SUSPENSE. It's not suspense like that way you tink of where we're nervous if a character is going to sin the big game or survive a fight. It's where we the viewer know of a secret that one of the cahracters on screen has no idea about. It adds another twist to watching the movie because we know somehting they don't and we want to yell at the screen, "You idiot! Can't you figure it out!" By filling us in on the non-existant Kaplan early on in the film, we still undersatnd Cary Grant's obsession with finding the real Kaplan because we were just in the same boat as him. But now we're forced to see him try against in search that's in vain. You can see stuff like this in "Nototious" and "Strangers on a train" also. Also, I loved the scene where the professor explains the Kaplan truth to Thornhill, so we stil lget to see his expression when he finds out but the roar of the airplane covers it so we're spared hearing the same shpiel twice. Also, I think Hitch may be thinking ahead, knowing that he still has some great "revelations" to make later on in the film like revealing Eve is undercover, when the bad guys figure that out, and the whole Thornhill gets shot scene. Discovering there's no Kaplan at that point of the movie would have been overkill and too much info to handle right then.