Lightweight Hitch

Rating: 5/10 (12 April 2009)

This film is bogged down by some mediocre acting (Robert Cummings in the lead, Priscilla Lane as the love interest) and some below-average writing. Hitchcock does play with some camera work that will pop up later in better pictures -- most notably people dangling perilously from national landmarks and a man pictured falling from a great height. Unfortunately, the story gets downright silly in places, with people inexplicably popping up in and out of captivity. Curiously, we are told at one point that Frank Fry's hiding place in Soda City is "up north" (i.e., Northern California), but when we and Cummings find Soda City, it's situated with a fine view of Hoover Dam, on the Arizona-Nevada border. The police allow a bit too much activity by Cummings and Lane in the climactic scenes of the film, when the authorities and presumably trying to round up the saboteurs, to be plausible. Still, there are enough deft Hitchcock touches to prevent the film from being a total disaster. This one may not even be in Hitchcock's top 50, but it's not a bad little diversion.