Nothing special

Rating: 4/10 (15 June 2005)

In the good old days of movie making,the fifties and sixties, thrillers and horror were reliant on suspense and incinuations rather than the gore and hide from the killer type formula of today. This is, what the 'master of suspense', Alfred Hitchcock did so well. Not so with this film I'm afraid.
Cary Grant is the leading man who is mistaken for somebody else. Causing some crooks to pursue him for, err a while. Grants love interest comes in the form of Eva Marie Saint. A rather implausible and predictable twist rears its head. If you think about it, you can probably guess it without even having seen the movie.
Talking of suspense this just lack suspense. Compared to hitchcock movies such as vertigo. The bad guys just aren't threatening. They're just like cartoon monsters, they chase but they don't kill. This being pg entertainment and for the films time its understandable. Though bad guys shouldn't have been drawn in this way anyway. Surely Hitch realised that? I think that the films main downfall is that the bad guys are shown to much. Early on we know they're not threatening pursuers. Theirs no suspense damn it! The thing Hitchcock does so well in other films is disguising the miscreants, rather than showing them so much, which leaves little room for incinuations and the classic who done it question. Also the fear of what we the viewer do not know.
The fact also remains that Cary Grant isn't that good an actor. He may have been good for romantic roles but here he feels out of place. Sure, he has some good lines, Which inject humour into his character, but unlike hitchcock regular James Stewart he can't do serious that well. He just comes across as bumbling, stupid and unable to solve the films final resolution. Making things more implausible.
To conclude I'm surprised that the film is so highly acclaimed, as it really isn't a patch on the likes of psycho, vertigo or rear window.