This review is of the earlier British version of the film.\u00a0 Simply stated, in my opinion, it\u2019s the better film.\u00a0 No disrespect to Jimmy Stewart or Doris Day but the 1950s version is not even close to the original.\u00a0 Once again Hitchcock gives us a tale of everyday people colliding with the world of spies.\u00a0 In this story there is an international plot to assassinate a foreign leader.\u00a0 And an English couple who accidentally become entangled in it are forced to choose between stopping the killing or getting their kidnapped daughter back alive.<\/p>\n
The film opens up in the Swiss Alps where Bob and Jill Lawrence along with their young daughter Betty are involved in some sporting competitions.\u00a0 Jill is a competing in a skeet shooting match and sometime during the games they have befriended a French downhill skier named Louis Bernard.\u00a0 After the competitions they all attend a dinner and dance party.\u00a0 During the party Louis is fatally shot but he manages to tell the Lawrences that he has a secret message that must be given to the British Consulate.\u00a0 Bob finds the message in Louis\u2019 room but before he can inform the consulate he receives a message telling him to say nothing if he ever wants to see his daughter Betty alive again.\u00a0 She\u2019s been kidnapped.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s the setup.\u00a0 And it takes the rest of the movie for Bob and Jill to figure out the message and find the spies without the help of the police. \u00a0In between there are homicidal dentists, sun-worshipping churches and classical music performances at the Albert Hall and most importantly there is Peter Lorre as Abbott.\u00a0 He will be the only actor familiar to American viewers and he is definitely the highlight of the movie.\u00a0 Of course, he\u2019s the head villain and the most interesting character in the film.\u00a0 Being Peter Lorre, he is palpably creepy but at the same time not completely unsympathetic as a character.\u00a0 His dealings with the Lawrences are strangely cordial, almost friendly, as if it\u2019s all just an unfortunate business situation and there are no hard feelings.\u00a0 And he can inject a touch of humor into the film such as in a scene where Abbott has left the hideout and gone down to the street to talk to the police.\u00a0 When the gang hears a police whistle blowing they suspect the worst has occurred.\u00a0 Hearing footsteps approaching they pull their guns.\u00a0 When Lorre opens the door, he sees the guns and he puts his hands up and smiles playfully at his gang as if to say, \u201cWell, you\u2019ve got me.\u00a0 Now what?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s just a throwaway moment but it does provide a human touch to the character and gives an extra dimension to the scene.<\/p>\n
The climax of the film is a protracted gun battle between the London police force and the spy ring.\u00a0 Hitchcock really went to town with this scene and the bad guys start off with a fusillade of lead that seemed more appropriate in a World War II machine gun battle.\u00a0 The merry mayhem goes on for a good little while and forces the police to raid a hunting store to obtain high powered rifles to compete with the weaponry the bad guys are sporting.\u00a0 I guess Hitchcock can be seen here to be one of the fathers of the action film.<\/p>\n
What I especially liked about this film is the way Hitchcock adds in the little touches that aren\u2019t central to the plot.\u00a0 During the gun battle the English police officers commandeer the surrounding buildings and watching them interact with the tenants and order them around in their own homes was very interesting not because it advanced the story or included characters that would be seen again but because it was humanly interesting.<\/p>\n
I like the British Hitchcock films because I think they\u2019re more grounded in the real world that he came from.\u00a0 The common people seem a little more real than his later attempts at bystanders and incidental characters as if they were based on real individuals he had known.\u00a0 Hitchcock is known for his crime films and these mundane bits don\u2019t seem to belong in that genre but to the contrary, I think it\u2019s the mundane but authentic elements in a story that make it feel real and that gives it impact.\u00a0 Otherwise it becomes just fantasy.\u00a0 Well anyway that\u2019s my opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This review is of the earlier British version of the film.\u00a0 Simply stated, in my opinion, it\u2019s the better film.\u00a0 No disrespect to Jimmy Stewart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,238,237],"tags":[494,747,43,1240,38],"class_list":["post-3757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-alfred-hitchcock","tag-england","tag-movie-review","tag-peter-lorre","tag-review"],"yoast_head":"\n