What more can be said?

Rating: 10/10 (9 December 2015)

ONCE AGAIN, IT appears that partnering co-author and imaginary friend, Schultz, and myself have long overlooked the pleasure of writing a review of what certainly must be considered among the greatest ever. Perhaps this was an oversight on our part; for, being quite familiar with it and having screened it seemingly countless times over the past half century or so, we probably just thought we'd already done one. (See what happens when you get a little long in the tooth, eh Schultz?)
HAVING DISPENSED WITH this perhaps egocentric and self-indulgent bit of written fun, we'll now attempt to get down to a fitting write-up of this all time favourite of so many.
WHAT MORE CAN be said of such a singularly great piece of cinema? From stem to stern, beginning to end, even top to bottom, we're challenged, entertained, amused and totally satisfied. In every department; be it music (perhaps Bernard Hermann's most original score), mystery plotting, multi city filming locations, pacing and rep-oratory style assembly of players, all come together in a great single effort.
ENGINEERING THE NEARLY perfect assembly of the final product is the master of the suspense story himself, Alfred Hitchcock. In keeping with some of his well established trademarks, he continued with the traditions established in a career that dated back to the last days of the Silents and the Ascent of the Talkies in his native England.
FOR ONE, HE made his obligatory on-screen appearance in the very early scene catching a bus on a busy New York City street. His second traditional element is that of having the portrayal of great tension played out against otherwise peaceful, prim & proper, even bland & boring. Such is the confrontation and subsequent cleverly engineered escape at the Fine Art Auction.
HITCH HAS ALSO long enjoyed putting his protagonist(s) in great peril against the backdrop of a well known, patriotically charged location. In THE SABOTEUR (Universal, 1941), it was the Statue of Liberty. In today's reviewed film, it is a pulse-pounding chase across the faced of the Mount Rushmore Memorial.
THIS MOVIE IS one of those that one can see over and over again and still enjoy. So, our prescription calls for you to do so. And you sure won't be alone; what with the stone countenances of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt all looking in at story's end! SCHULTZ AND MESELF give it **** (4 Stars), one for each President making his stone-faced cameo. And Schultz asks: "Ain't there two Roosevelts?"