“When I’ve put a rope round the Avenger’s neck, I’ll put a ring around Daisy’s finger.” – Joe Betts
Number of Times Seen – 1 (19 Sep 2018)
Brief Synopsis – When a murderer terrorizes the city of London, everyone gets suspicious of anyone unfamiliar.
My Take on it – In my attempt to eventually watch all of Alfred Hitchcock’s films as director, I decided to tackle another of his silent films having no idea what to really expect from it.
This film is superbly done given the fact that Hitchcock was limited by the technology at the time to do more with this kind of premise.
He is able to weave such an enjoyable suspense mystery despite the fact that he couldn’t use much dialogue.
The characters all manage to help the story by the use of facial expressions and other actions since the ability to use dialogue was limited to dialogue cards every so often.
This story moves along at a great pace and the way that it is told makes the viewer constantly question and re-question whether the suspect is guilty or innocent of the crimes he is being accused of since both scenarios are presented as being quite plausible the entire time.
This film is further proof as to how much of a master of the trade Hitchcock truly was even when he was limited by the technical aspects of the time.
Bottom Line – Great film that works so well as a thriller and a whodunit even without the use of dialogue. The characters manage to do a great job of expressing their emotions via facial expressions and other actions since the use of language is limited. Loved the way that the story moves along at a great pace and constantly makes you change your mind as to whether the suspect is guilty or innocent since both seem plausible at any given time. There is a reason Hitchcock was known as a master of suspense even when the tricks available to him were somewhat limited. Recommended!
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – For the opening of the film, Alfred Hitchcock wanted to show the Avenger’s murder victim being dragged out of the Thames River at night with the Charing Cross Bridge in the background, but Scotland Yard refused his request to film at the bridge. Hitchcock repeated his request several times, until Scotland Yard notified him that they would “look the other way” if he could do the filming in one night. Hitchcock quickly sent his cameras and actors out to Charing Cross Bridge to film the scene, but when the rushes came back from the developers, the scene at the bridge was nowhere to be found. Hitchcock and his assistants searched through the prints, but could not find it. Finally, Hitchcock discovered that his cameraman had forgotten to put the lens on the camera before filming the night scene. (From IMDB)
Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)
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