Tenement Symphony

Rating: 5/10 (6 November 2008)

Hitchcock buffs often point out that his serious movies are laced with laughs and this one has a terrific laugh toward the end. Murder suspect Raymond Burr has been lured out of his apartment in order that Grace Kelly and Thelma Ritter can dig up the flowerbed. Frustrated to find nothing Kelly enters his apartment in search of evidence. Stewart, watching from across the courtyard, sees Burr returning and unable to warn Kelly rings the police - after first looking up the number - explains that a man is assaulting a woman (not true, though he IS about to) and - wait for it - the police ARRIVE inside five minutes. I mean is this funny or not. I seem to be saying the same thing over and over; namely that Hitchcock is vastly overrated. Why then do I watch his films. Well you might ask. The short answer is that I know a lot of people, some of them are even friends, who have, in my opinion, fallen for the hype, because by now the myth is self-perpetuating, and keep pressing dvds on me in the hope of converting me. They're something akin to those well-meaning folks who can't see an unattached person without attempted matchmaking. So far I'm holding out. Whilst I acknowledge a competent filmmaker that's as far as it goes. On the other hand any director would have his work cut out to coax even a mediocre, let alone a bad performance out of Jimmy Stewart just as any director would have his work cut out to elicit anything resembling acting from Grace Kelly. So now we have a stand-off. On the plus side we have Thelma Ritter, who enhances anything she appears in but then he spoils it again by casting ex-Forestry Commission employee Wendell Corey. Not as bad as To Catch A Thief but then what is.