Not nearly up to the usual Hitchcock standards on detail and logic.

Rating: 2/10 (13 August 2008)

I side with those who have criticized this film as being exceptionally poor by Hitchcock standards. While Psycho, North By Northwest, Suspicion, Dial M For Murder, et al, employed the virtues of logic and rationality coupled with Hitch's normal dose of high suspense, this film fails in nearly every way to convey the seeds of reality. Thus I couldn't appreciate whatever suspense it tried to conjure. The whole storyline seemed flooded with improbabilities, illogical sequences, flawed reasoning, and implausible character acts & emotions. It's hard to imagine that Hitchcock was responsible for this film, or that James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes agreed to act in it. Just for starters, why in the world would a spouse cook up a scheme this ultra-elaborate & complicated to do away with his wife? Wouldn't arsenic or an auto accident be simpler to arrange? And why would he decide to frame one of his closest friends, anyway? How could the dead wife be toted up that long spiral stairs at the bell tower by a man in his sixties? And would he really allow for the risk of being detected while making that long climb up? How could Madeline (Judy)adore a man she was also setting up as a patsy? Why would she stay around after the murder and risk being identified as an accomplice, as indeed she finally was? Why would she allow easygoing Scottie to coerce her into wearing all those new clothes and unraveling her disguise after seeing that he was suspicious? For that matter, why would she permit herself to be prodded into climbing the belltower stairs once she realized he was on to her? Her resistance seemed token. Maybe there are explanations for these and 100 other things I didn't understand, but together they ruined the film for me.