But this is a spy thriller afterall, and not a strict romance. Cary Grant is a little underutilized, and the central relationship could benefit from more time to develop. Ingrid Bergman is once again fantastic, this time as a nervous secret agent who nonetheless presents as confident in most of the key moments, and she's also strikingly funny in a few lighter sequences. There are also a number of incredible long takes that roam around the sets to familiarize the audience with the space, further strengthening the sense of tension with an innovative perspective, especially by 1946's standards. The champagne party sequence and the finale are especially thrilling, as the director uses unsteady cameras and wobbly focus to visualize an inebriated, shaky point of view. You can find some of Hitchcock's tensest sequences and most creative shots in this espionage drama, which follows a German-American woman (Ingrid Bergman) as she infiltrates a group of Nazis in Brazil. It's unusually forced and out of character, and feels like a massive shrug compared to the darker conclusion you imagine a hundred times in the preceding scenes. The main element holding it back from the upper echelon of the director's works is its ending - which was supposedly dictated by the studio and totally contradicts the rhythm and tone that the rest of the movie builds toward - reversing the entire meaning of the film. Hitchcock's visual style meanwhile isn't as overwhelming here as it is in later works, but there are reliable bursts of flashiness and no shortage of beautiful compositions. You can always tell what the former is thinking, and it's impossible to fully understand the latter, as his movie star charm contradicts the implied desperation of the conflict. Fontaine shines brightly (delivering the only Oscar-winning performance in a Hitchcock film), while she and Grant each add layers of complexity to their characters. One of Hitchcock's many paranoid thrillers, Suspicion examines the struggle of a woman ( Joan Fontaine) who suspects her husband (Cary Grant) of horrific crimes. Though, the fact that Hitchcock considered Shadow of a Doubt to be his favorite of his many films counts for something, landing this entry in the top 30, respectively, though not enough to crack the top 25. Instead, Hitchcock frames him as a slimy monster nearly every second he's on screen, so there's very little room for ambiguity. The film wants to operate in shades of gray, but its second lead seems transparently evil in every one of his scenes, including the ones where he's supposed to be playful and charming with his younger relatives.Ī more thoughtful, intriguingly tense movie would make Cotten's character genuinely likable and charismatic when he's not showing his villainous hand to complicate our feelings toward him, in the same way that the attitude of the protagonist ( Teresa Wright) is supposedly complicated. It's an uncomfortable sequence that's as poorly constructed as it is offensive, and it completely knocks the wind out of an otherwise enjoyable film.īuilt around an excellent premise - suspecting your favorite family member of unspeakable crimes - Shadow of a Doubt stumbles on the path to reaching its full potential due to spotty pacing and a subpar performance from Joseph Cotten. It's all fun and games until the finale, which hinges on one of the worst scenes of Hitchcock's career: We, the audience, identify a suspect as the camera slowly zooms in on him while he plays the drums in blackface. The pair reluctantly goes on the run from De Marney's murder charge together, but as they come across the family and friends of Pilbeam's character, the duo plays it as if they're lovers trying to balance their personal happiness with her loved ones' expectations. Despite being relatively underwritten, their romantic dynamic crackles as the two easily find the comedy in every scenario without undermining the dramatic tension. One of Hitchcock's lighter thrillers, Young and Innocent is a straightforward wrong-man film elevated by the chemistry of its leads, Derrick De Marney as fugitive and Nova Pilbeam as a young woman roped into his antics.
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