In this film, you can see hints of the filmmaker Alfred Hitchchock would become in later years. There's a great moment (that, unfortunately, then plays out with much too much self-awareness) where the main characters infiltrate a worship service in search of the bad guy. Trying to blend in, they pick up a hymnal and sing along, and then quietly *sing* clues to each other. "That woman to our riiiight..." Although it gets sillier as the scene goes on, the idea is very much the Hitchcock I know and love.
The execution, however, leaves much to be desired. Hitchcock has brilliant ideas here, but awkward casting and sound effects bring the movie down to at times a nearly unwatchable level. If the quality of the 1950s version could be crossed with the ideas of this one, we might have a very, very interesting movie.
But then again, whatever the original lacks, it also doesn't subject us to hours of Doris Day singing the same three verses of "Que Sera, Sera" over and over again. 2.5 stars.
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