I know, I know, another Hitchcock film! But there's another set of reasons for this selection: Jessica recommended it to me (and let me borrow her DVD), and this movie appears on several "Best of" lists on the site ICheckMovies.com (thanks also to Jessica and Rick for telling me about this site, where I have already wiled away many an hour -- it is a way to keep track of the movies you've seen). And since it kept showing up on these lists, and it's Hitchcock, and I had it in my position: well, the conspiracy was set, so here we go.
One of Hitchcock's finer outings, to be sure, with the lovely and amazing Ingrid Bergman as a spy who goes so far as to marry a former lover during her assignment. Cary Grant plays her true love (DUH, does he ever do anything but?) and liaison to the Whatever Spy Agency. The film is suspenseful, to be sure, and while it spends a little too much time with the whole "I love you, I love you, I love you" back-and-forth between the leads, at least it stays consistent in this regard.
Claude Rains plays the Nazi smuggler-type husband with calculating precision, and the moments when he and his mother realize who Bergman realize is are among the most superior in the film. Hitchcock did a lot with distorted vision and "cloudwalking" (as in the last scene as the main characters descend the staircase) to a triumphant degree, and every scene is so carefully planned and perfectly executed that the viewer feels led almost child-like into the world of the movie. Kind of a "here's what I want you to get from this shot and you will understand the movie better for it" feel without being cloying or extraneous. Really a perfect little package of a film.
Score: 9.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment