My first Hitchcock, and first full talkie on this 1001 movies project. It was mostly very underwhelming: glacially slow, poorly paced, and generally just not well constructed. It definitely felt like everyone was figuring out how it worked as they went, which is fair, but doesn't make for a good viewing experience. Anny Ondra turns in a dreadful performance, and everybody else just kind of fizzles. The best thing I can say about this movie is a shocking scene at breakfast, which the dialogue in the scene slowly becomes subjective. Everything becomes a murmur except for "knife, Knife, KNIFE..." For a movie that felt as wobbly as it did in so many respects, this felt like a shockingly advanced way of utilizing sound technology to amplify that scene's effects. Wonderful!
Shout by Tony BatesVIP 2BlockedParent2023-01-27T23:03:17Z
My first Hitchcock, and first full talkie on this 1001 movies project. It was mostly very underwhelming: glacially slow, poorly paced, and generally just not well constructed. It definitely felt like everyone was figuring out how it worked as they went, which is fair, but doesn't make for a good viewing experience. Anny Ondra turns in a dreadful performance, and everybody else just kind of fizzles. The best thing I can say about this movie is a shocking scene at breakfast, which the dialogue in the scene slowly becomes subjective. Everything becomes a murmur except for "knife, Knife, KNIFE..." For a movie that felt as wobbly as it did in so many respects, this felt like a shockingly advanced way of utilizing sound technology to amplify that scene's effects. Wonderful!