Worth watching for James Stewart and Kim Novak

Rating: 7/10 (15 April 2015)

As with many movies from this era I find it a bit naive. The story is ingenious of course, but I do not believe anybody would use it for a production for an adult audience today. The mumbo-jumbo element is too improbable and immature - also when it turns out that is was a false lead. It is a typical plot for a mystery novel or TV series for 11- 15 year old girls. I did not find the movie especially suspenseful or scary either, despite of it being a Hitchcock movie.
With this said, I enjoyed the movie for the actors. I love James Stewart - he was so handsome and stylish as a middle-aged man, and he also had that decent and wholesome aura. As a woman, one feels that one should be safe and secure with a husband like that - at the same time that one's hormones would be working overtime! :-) That is a very unusual combination in a man.
Kim Novak is also perfect in her role. She was very pretty at this time - although never on par with the great Hollywood beauties, such as Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner or Elizabeth Taylor. Novak shows here that she could play both the Lady and the Tramp - two totally different character types.
One thing that is a bit strange though, is that "Judy" could not play the role of "Madeleine" better in the latter part of the movie, when she had got to the stage that she wanted to do everything to please "Scottie". I mean: when she had played that role so successfully in the early part of the story, she ought to have been able to use the same posture, the same way of walking, the same modulated speech etc. also if she had no one to coach her anymore. That was a big plot-hole, really.
Also, as many others who have commented here, I think it was a mistake to reveal the solution to the mystery so early on. That made the remaining part of the movie less interesting - although one still wanted to know if "Scottie" would forgive "Judy" and be able to love her as herself.