Runtime: 128 minutes
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova, Hansjorg Felmy, Tamara Toumanova
From: Universal
Hot Dog!
The past several years I have not watched much in the way of Hitchcock. I just haven't felt like it for the most part even though there are some big movies in his filmography I haven't seen before or haven't seen in many years thus it was not reviewed here. Yesterday I saw two movies from Hitch (both among the last he did in his career) mainly because both were on DVD so it was convenient for me. This and what I'll discuss in a few hours were new to me so I was intrigued if they were as “lesser Hitch” as most portray them as being.
The idea of the plot is interesting: how would the significant other of a defector react to such news not being told to them beforehand? In this case, Paul Newman and Julie Andrews are both scientists who are engaged; Newman defects to East Germany to share his knowledge... only he is actually undercover to acquire information from behind the Iron Curtain; it's a classic MacGuffin. They try to explain why Old Paul doesn't explain the full story to his lady until deep in the story but to me it's more frustrating than anything else.
Thankfully this had least had its classic Hitch moments, even if his longtime cinematographer and editor both died between Marnie and this... and he had a famous blowup with longtime composer Bernard Herrmann, which is why they never worked together again. The score present here is fine but it's just not the same. Me, what makes this story fine despite its various flaws-many of which I won't spoil here but some scenes are too long-includes filming in Europe and not in the overused London or Paris (instead it was Denmark and Germany), some colorful supporting characters I enjoyed more than the two leads-such as Gerhard, Kuchinska and especially Gromek-& a few quality scenes, especially a great one involving three characters in a confined space.
I know Hitch was not a fan of how this film turned out or its production. Naturally, people do expect more from one of history's greatest directors-this was still good and some directors have trouble even reaching that level.
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