JakeStevens Blog

Given the time this film was released (Europe was on the verge of being plunged into WWII), this film expertly uses the fear of the nation to create a large amount of suspense. Is this exploitation? Perhaps. But it seemed to captivate audiences of the time. On a side note, good luck finding a decent copy of this film; I've noticed the only companies to release this film are the public domain-type, Laserlight usually being the best, but even then, the prints are often times horrible at best and the sound is muffled and unintelligible. Oskar Homolka plays a great bad guy - all menacing stares and slightly sinister accent. There's a scene of a bomb going off that is in question, and even Hitchcock has admitted regretting this particular scene, but as this is based on a novel, it remains true to the source material, so I give it props for not kowtowing to studio pressure for a "happier" means to an end, but again, it does seem a bit exploitative to use as a device of sympathy. All in all, one of Hitchcock's better early films, but as the Movie Guide review says below, a notch below other films of the era.

Man, some of the car chase sequences in this film are bone-crunchingly realistic. And there's a fairly brutal sequence of events with an assassin who takes out a bunch of Secret Service guys. And that's about as much compliment as I can dole out to this somewhat laughable thriller/action/Lost-wanna be. The acting by the cast is top notch, but they're working with a script that, when all is said and done, ends up being incredibly pedestrian and gimmicky. I've noticed lately that Dennis Quaid films offer a nice distraction from your day, but leave no real deep impression (unlike, say, American Beauty or No Country For Old Men). In that regard, this film will fit nicely into his repertoire of films such as Frequency or In Good Company. Definitely a rental.

...Just not all that interesting, to tell you the truth. It's a beautifully shot film with a great plot, but I imagine this would work better as a novel than a film, because it's mostly just a lot of talking in the vein of Eric Rohmer. I loved the story, but really, what can you do when there's this much dialogue between characters? A difficult film to make, I'm sure, and it's a film that's not for everybody (especially those with short attention spans), but hey, it was worth the dollar I paid for it at the local Wal-Greens.