Smell the Movies
Smell the TV
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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| Year: | 1954 |
| Country of origin: | USA |
| Director: | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Genre: | Crime thriller |
| Starring: | Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings |
| Rating: | 5/5 |
| IMDB link: | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046912/ |
| Tagline: | Kiss By Kiss...Supreme Suspense Unfurls! |
| Favourite line: | "Do you really believe in the perfect murder?" |
Another top 250 movie for Hitchcock here, at least according to IMDB.
And it's pretty hard to argue.
As ever with Hitchcock, the essential 'high concept' is a simple one and, inevitably from the master of suspense, centres around murder in one form or another.
This time around it's a husband, determined to 'off' his adulterous wife, who contrives to blackmail a particularly unsavoury sort into committing the crime. He thinks he's got the perfect murder planned, down to every detail which are explained with great care to the viewer. Unfortunately, all does not go to plan so he is forced to improvise, and the plan B has a few unforeseen loopholes which are detected by cunning, intuition and the occasional twirl of the moustache by the police.
Dialogue is one of the movies great strengths - this is essentially a stage play, or at least could be. The vast majority of the movie is spent in one room, with protaganists poring over the details of the crime - either in planning stage or crime detection stage for the policeman in charge - and the assuredness of the acting is remarkable, given the date of the movie. Sure, there's the odd inadvertantly comic moment for the modern viewer, but these are easily forgiven by all but the most ignorant of buffoonists.
Taut, dripping with menace and with not an ounce of fat on the bones, this is masterful movie-making from the master himself.
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