Deja vu vu all over again!

Rating: 6/10 (7 August 2016)

Once the viewer gets past the feeling of familiarity--'say, haven't I seen this movie before?'--it's not a bad movie. Certainly not one of the greats. "39 Steps" is great because it was Hitchcock's early treatment of a man wrongfully accused on the run inadvertently chained to someone he can barely tolerate. And the chemistry in "39 Steps" between the actors combined with an excellent script made for film excellence. But while "39 Steps" had a believable cast, Robert Cummings simply cannot be seen in emotional distress. (Never mind, in real life, Cummings would succumb to meth addiction from Dr. Feelgood thus affecting both his physical health and his mental health. But that was way distant in his future.) Robert Cummings ends up being the weakest link in a weak movie. His blithe good looks served him well in "Dial M for Murder", not so much here where he is expected to demonstrate a range of emotional distress.
Simply put, Hitchcock went to the well too many times here. And part of the problem is by now the movie viewer has seen most of Hitchcock's movies, not necessarily in the sequence he made them; as he made the film they fall within an historical time-line that is not available to the viewer who sees them as a measure of their popularity. So there is a sense that this movie has been seen and the realization that the treatment of the topic is not as good as in that other film: "Vertigo", "North by Northwest", "39 Steps", etc.
But as suspense drama, the movie does hold up fairly well. The closing scene at the Statue of Liberty holds the viewer. Priscilla Lane holds on to Otto Kruger so he doesn't escape; and the suspense is taut to its conclusion.
It just doesn't seem to measure up to other films Hitchcock made surrounding similar themes with different actors.