(Review originally written at 10 May 2008)
This is one fine early Hitchcock and early thriller movie, with one fine story in which the movie its main character is always one the run for somebody.
Because I had never heard about this movie before, my expectations for it weren't too high, despite the fact that it was directed by no other than Alfred Hitchcock. Early Hitchcock movies I had already seen were good but were also always lacking a thing or two, preventing the movies from being true great genre classics or making any of them among Hitckcock's best work. Nevertheless this movie turned out to be surprisingly great and despite some of flaws it's a real great early Hitchcock movie from 1935.
Like expected the cinematography for this movie was great. You can thrust Hitchcock on always featuring some great and innovative cinematography in any of his movies. Also the fast editing makes this a fast going and well flowing movie. It's mostly the thing that makes this movie so great and perhaps even make it seem a bit ahead of its time. It nevertheless is still an at times slow going movie due to its story but this is the case with basically every '30's movie.
It otherwise is one fine and intriguing thriller story with mystery elements thrown into it. It's a movie in which the main character is constantly on the run for somebody. You can say that this is the '30's version of "The Bourne Identity". It makes this movie always on the move and it's something that Hitchcock often would let feature in his movies.
Besides that this movie of course also featuring lots of other different typical Hitchock elements such as stairs, a cameo by the man himself and amazing unmatched suspense. His more earlier movies from the '30's and '40's are not as well known as his later movies from the '50's and '60's but most of them are just as good, especially considering that they got made in the earlier days of cinema, when thriller movies and such were still pretty much in their early beginning stages.
Despite the fact that the movie has no well known actors in it,a ll of the actors suit their roles well and did a good job. It really shows that Hitchcock was a great actor-director as well.
A great and entertaining early spy-thriller, that still holds up very well this present day!
9/10
Watch trailer
No comments: