Nov. 29, 2002 - 8:48 pm
yet another one from my personal collection. what grand things you can find for $2.95 at a used book store if you know what to look for. number 212 on the IMDb's top 250 list today. anyway i first saw this great Alfred Hitchcock classic last year when i was watching things over at the media center at UT. going through the American Dictionary of Film, you can spot a lot of awesome things worth watching if you browse through it enough. i used to flip through that thing whenever i got bored in my dorm and then i'd head out to watch a movie at the library. that's pretty nice when you have thousands of classic films within a 3 minute walking distance that you can just watch on a whim without paying out any cash. see, i like my current setup pretty well. i can watch them at my place whenever i want 24 hours a day, and i don't have to wear any headphones to do so. unfortunately the "within walking distance" factor is a thing of the past. i have to drive 15-20 minutes to pick them up downtown. but at least it's still free right?
but back to the film. this has definitely become one of my favorite Hitchcock films. and it's one that really doesn't get mentioned very often by film historians. the plot of this movie is very similar to that of The Fugitive (1995). or i guess it's really the other way around. but anyway, a man gets accused of a murder he didn't commit, and gets chased all over the country while trying to find the real murderer. an intelligent man, but by no means a fighter or superhero of any kind. he's just very witty. enter Robert Donat, one of my favorite actors from the 1930s. no one could have pulled off this role any better than he did. flawless performance.
this film is amazingly exciting for the time that it came out. plus it's Hitchcock, so what else would we expect? wonderful cinematography and editing as well. i would love to have a poster in my room of just about any shot in this movie. wonderful framing of elements on the screen. everything was meticulously planned out and it really shows. i think my mom would really enjoy this movie too. the whole spy aspect of it i think is pretty interesting. and then like i said, it's Robert Donat and it's starting to seem like he can make any film awesome.
be sure to click the "previous movie" link today.