Release: 1955, Theatrical
Starring: Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Natwick
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
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Description: A poacher finds a dead body he believes to have shot by accident, soon more and more people get involved in finding out what to do about it
Hans' thoughts:
Hitchcock once again delivers with yet another murder mystery, this time in a different manner. While the other movies certainly had their comedic movies, this seems to be the first one that completely delves into the realm of comedy. Harry Worpt is found dead, nobody is really sorry that he's dead but what do you do about a dead body? It goes once again to show one of Hitchcocks apparent pet projects: How do you commit the perfect murder? In Shadow of a Doubt, he even had two characters openly discuss it.
One of the big draws of the movie is the visuals, it takes place in a small rural village in what seems to be autumn. It takes big advantage of the natural beauty of the area, scenic meadows and colored trees and a small village with old houses. The colouring of the movie is very warm and inviting, almost mocking of the fact that one of the characters are dead. Indeed, I don't think I've seen many other movies where a dead body is moved around quite as much aside from Weekend at Bernie's.
As for the acting, some of the characters felt rather reserved. This could be because of the characters they were playing but it did leave me feeling I didn't get to know them quite as well as is usually case in Hitchcock movies. On that point I'd also point out that out of the Hitchcock movies I've seen thus far, this is in the lower half of the quality. Granted, this isn't saying much as Hitchcock was unbelievably talented and it's still better than some lesser directors better works.
While this movie certainly had it's creepy moments at times, I feel that it wasn't quite as ambitious as the others in the shot department. No, this is actually a straightforward movie with not all that much of interesting imagery as there were in his former works. I couldn't really point out a moment in this movie that stood out to me. Overall I'd say that it is definitely a passable movie, but maybe a bit too quiet for my tastes.
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