What A Film

Rating: 9/10 (8 April 2013)

I still need to go through Hitchcock's entire back catalogue, but this is the best film I've seen by the director so far. From the great acting and dialogue, terrific rooftop visuals and the combination of beautiful, suspenseful music. I enjoyed the mesmeric views of San Francisco during the 1950s and the beautiful saloon cars with white wall tyres and blazing logos.
The pace of the film unfolds quite cleverly. One minute the husband is asking the detective for help, neatly followed by a refusal, the next moment the detective is already working undercover, no need for acceptance speeches or excessive justifications. It's simply masterful scriptwriting flow.
After 30 minutes running time I still had no real idea what the film was about, not that it made a jot of difference, followed by Hitchcock's knack of revealing practically everything all at once so that we don't get too bogged down. The scene being set once again for the next, even more mysterious part.
The film does dip in pace a little during the mid section, but picks up again after a major incident, surprising us with surreal dreaming sequences, intertwining monochrome colours with bizarre and rather spooky effects.
The film scores on so many levels that it left me be a little overwhelmed. It could be regarded as a story of longing or unrequited love, of madness and schizophrenic flashbacks, or a straightforward detective based mystery thriller, depending on how you look at it. The film is more thought provoking than any other Hitchcock film I've seen so far, I had to pause to consider the manner in which the plot had turned and why the situation had arrived at that particular point.
It's a very intimate, almost creepy film in places about love, obsession, deceit and betrayal with pre-psychedelic overtones. I thought the switches between time and space were simply fantastical, with the twists and turns adding layer upon layer of intrigue, never getting old nor giving too much.
After the underwhelming disappointment (for me) of James Stewart in 'Rear Window', this was a massive hit, putting Hitchcock firmly back on the historical 'best of' film map.