Here, in one of Hitchcock’s few whodunits, even the actress accused of murder is unsure whether she’s guilty, having blacked out before being discovered with the weapon and a colleague’s corpse. Just one juror (Herbert Marshall) – a thesp himself – believes her innocent, and investigates. A fascinating, multi-layered study of the role played by performance in public and private life, the film (one of several linked to the theatrical world) features fittingly long, carefully choreographed takes – as well as an intriguing, almost audacious take on sexuality.
Just as issues of trust and mistrust between men and women often fuelled Hitchcock's thrillers, so they informed most of his comedies. In this wry, episodic cautionary tale of a suburban couple fleeing the daily grind on a luxury cruise, the characters fall prey to different kinds of temptation.
This early Alfred Hitchcock drama sees him again adapting a stage play; this time reworking Galsworthy's account of the increasingly bitter, even vicious battle for land between an aristocratic family (down to their last Rolls Royce) and a nouveau riche industrialist. With Edmund Gwenn in the fir...
Father-daughter tensions arise when a millionaire (Harker), suspecting his playgirl daughter's fiancé is a gold-digger, pretends the family fortune is gone. A bubbly comic parable built around Betty Balfour's effervescent energy, the film is an early example of Hitchcock's long-term fascination w...
