Great but FLAWED (some mild spoilers)

Rating: 10/10 (5 March 2001)

I won't bother with any of that nonsense about how this is one of the greatest movies ever made. Everybody knows that, and if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, let me know so I can stamp the word IDIOT on their forehead. But the movie has a terrible, terrible flaw that needs to be addressed.
Simply put, Hitchcock should have cut that early scene where the intelligence agency members discuss what they are going to do now that Thornhill has been mistaken for Kaplan. It's an awful scene. For one thing, the scene is incredibly poorly written in comparison with the rest of the film--the characters say everything over and over again, in the simplest terms possible, as though they think we're all too stupid to figure anything out. More importantly, though, the scene completely ruins the mystery of George Kaplan way too early in the film.
Imagine if that scene were removed. Then we'd be closer to Thornhill's plight throughout the entire movie--when he sees that guy at the cornfield, we'd think that was Kaplan, just like Thornhill does. And then when the professor guy shows up at the airport, we'd all be like, "Okay, now that HAS to be Kaplan." And we'd learn the truth about Kaplan right along with Thornhill. But that dumb scene at the beginning spoils the mystery, and unfortunately that keeps us from relating with Thornhill as much as we otherwise might have.
Don't let any of this stop you from seeing the movie. It's wonderful. But while you watch it, think about what it might have been.