Notable cast/crew: Farley Granger as Guy Haines. He was previously in Rope. Ruth Roman as Ann Morton. Robert Walker as Bruno Antony. Leo G Carroll as Senator Morton. This was his fifth of six Hitchcock films. Patricia Hitchcock as Barbara Morton. This is her second of three films for her father.
Running time: 103 minutesDirector: Alfred Hitchcock
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| The picture of obsession |
Guy returns to his hometown to settle up with his wife. She's extorting money from him and stepping out on him. She tells him she's having someone else's baby, and she's calling off the divorce that she asked for to try to extort more money out of Guy. Guy storms out and calls Ann to tell her his wife is backing out of the divorce. He also angrily declares he's so mad he could strangle her.
Bruno heads to New York and, after stalking her at a carnival, strangles her on a small island. The murder is roughly at 9:30. Meanwhile, Guy is on a train back down to Washington. He talks to a professor who is drunk and singing about a goat. He encounters Bruno who tells him he has murdered his wife. Bruno is delusional and thinks they agreed to this on the train.
The police question Guy as to his whereabouts, but the professor has now sobered up and can't provide an alibi. Bruno continues to push Guy to murder his father in return for his having murdered Miriam. He goes so far as to leave Guy a map of his house with a front door key attached. He turns up at Guy's tennis match, and while everyone else watches the match, Bruno stares at Guy. Bruno then insinuates himself into a conversation at the tennis club where Ann realizes who he is. Bruno proceeds to continue to run his mouth and get caught up in murderous fantasies which makes Guy more concerned he will talk and try to implicate him in the murder.
To get Bruno off his back, Guy agrees to his murder as a ruse. He shows up at the house and tries to warn Bruno's father. However, it's Bruno waiting in the room not his father. He decides since Guy won't do his murder he should take responsibility for Miriam's. Ann tries to tell Bruno's mother what he's done, but she's dotty and lets it go right over her head.
Bruno is going to plant Guy's lighter at the scene of the murder to implicate him, and it turns into a race to the carnival grounds. Guy and the police arrive at the same time while Bruno is waiting for the boat to the island. The boat operator recognizes Bruno from that night and goes to alert the police. Bruno panics and heads to the carousel where he sees Guy and the police. A wild shot from a policeman kills the carousel operator sending it careening out of control. An engineer crawls under the carousel and trips the emergency brake causing the whole thing to explode and crash. Bruno is mortally wounded in the crash, but even dying tries to accuse Guy. The lighter in his hand reveals his lie and proves Guy's innocence.
MacGuffin: Guy's lighter
Hitchcock cameo: Struggling to get his cello case on board the train
Hitchcock themes:
- Murder
- Stairs
- Charming villain
- Mother issues
Verdict: A very entertaining movie, it has a lot of Hitchcock's touches that make this a memorable film. Farley Granger is good although not quite as forceful as he was in Rope, but Robert Walker is outstanding as Bruno. He portrays a very complex character. The same man that pops a kid's balloon just to be nasty then helps a blind man cross the street. He can seem like a weak dandy, and then evince dominant menace in an instant. Unfortunately, this was the last full feature for Robert Walker who died eight months after filming finished from an allergic reaction to a drug.
There are a number of impressive shots in the film. The strangulation scene is still studied in film classes today. Instead of showing the murder directly, Miriam's glasses are knocked off, and we watch the strangulation reflected in the lenses of her glasses. First, Hitchcock got the exterior shots in Canoga Park using both actors, then later he had Laura Elliott (Miriam) alone report to a soundstage where there was a large concave reflector set on the floor. The camera was on one side of the reflector, Elliott was on the other, and Hitchcock directed Elliott to turn her back to the reflector and "float backwards, all the way to the floor... like you were doing the limbo." Hitchcock then had the two elements double printed.
There are two shots involving Bruno that stand out. In the first, he stalks Guy in Washington, DC. Guy sees him at a distance standing in front of the Jefferson Memorial. The stark white gleam of the monument contrasts with the dark figure of Bruno standing in front of it. Hitchcock used this play of light and dark throughout the movie. In the second scene, Bruno stalks Guy at a tennis match. As everyone else is watching the match, their heads back and forth to follow the volleys, Bruno stares fixedly at Guy. He is the only one not watching the match, and he's the only one not moving in the shot. It has a very unnerving effect on Guy and the viewer, and it's that silent menace that adds tension and suspense to the film.
The stunt where the man crawls under the carousel was not done with trick photography. Alfred Hitchcock claimed that this was the most dangerous stunt ever performed under his direction, and he would never allow it to be done again. The carousel explosion was done using miniatures and background projection, acting close-ups and other inserts, all of it put together by film editor William Ziegler. Hitchcock filmed a toy carousel blown up by explosives. This was enlarged and projected onto a screen with actors spread around in front of it so that the effect is a group of bystanders observing plaster horses and passengers being hurled about. "Hitchcock told me that this scene was the most personally frightening moment for him in any of his films", writes biographer Charlotte Chandler. "The man who crawled under the out-of-control carousel was not an actor or a stuntman, but a carousel operator who volunteered for the job. 'If the man had raised his head even slightly', Hitchcock said, 'it would have gone from being a suspense film into a horror film'."
The goat song is always a personal pleasure as it's a song my grandfather used to sing when I was little. I still know all the words to it, and this movie is the only place I have ever heard it outside of my grandfather singing it.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
There are a number of impressive shots in the film. The strangulation scene is still studied in film classes today. Instead of showing the murder directly, Miriam's glasses are knocked off, and we watch the strangulation reflected in the lenses of her glasses. First, Hitchcock got the exterior shots in Canoga Park using both actors, then later he had Laura Elliott (Miriam) alone report to a soundstage where there was a large concave reflector set on the floor. The camera was on one side of the reflector, Elliott was on the other, and Hitchcock directed Elliott to turn her back to the reflector and "float backwards, all the way to the floor... like you were doing the limbo." Hitchcock then had the two elements double printed.
The stunt where the man crawls under the carousel was not done with trick photography. Alfred Hitchcock claimed that this was the most dangerous stunt ever performed under his direction, and he would never allow it to be done again. The carousel explosion was done using miniatures and background projection, acting close-ups and other inserts, all of it put together by film editor William Ziegler. Hitchcock filmed a toy carousel blown up by explosives. This was enlarged and projected onto a screen with actors spread around in front of it so that the effect is a group of bystanders observing plaster horses and passengers being hurled about. "Hitchcock told me that this scene was the most personally frightening moment for him in any of his films", writes biographer Charlotte Chandler. "The man who crawled under the out-of-control carousel was not an actor or a stuntman, but a carousel operator who volunteered for the job. 'If the man had raised his head even slightly', Hitchcock said, 'it would have gone from being a suspense film into a horror film'."
The goat song is always a personal pleasure as it's a song my grandfather used to sing when I was little. I still know all the words to it, and this movie is the only place I have ever heard it outside of my grandfather singing it.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
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