Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
1934/UK
Gaumont British Picture Corporation
Second Viewing
Abbott: Tell her they may soon be leaving us. Leaving us for a long, long journey. How is it that Shakespeare says? “From which no traveler returns.” Great poet.
Bob and Jill Lawrence are vacationing with their daughter Betty in Switzerland when their friend Louis is murdered. Before dieing Louis passes them secret information. Betty is promptly kidnapped to prevent the Lawrences from going to the authorities with the information. Can the Lawrences rescue Betty? Can another assassination be prevented? With Leslie Banks and Edna Best as the Lawrences, Nova Philbeam as Betty, Pierre Fresnay as Louis, and Peter Lorre as the head of the kidnapping/spy ring.
This is OK early Hitchcock but I can understand why he wanted to remake it on a bigger budget in 1956. The suspense leaves something to be desired, though the Albert Hall scene is still classic. The picture is well worth seeing if only to catch Peter Lorre’s performance. He makes a wonderfully jovial yet really creepy bad guy.
The Albert Hall sequence
Nova Pillbeam was a strange looking girl and I thought she looked too old for the part she was playing. Loree was almost sympathetic as the bad guy. I really liked this film better than the remake but that’s no surprise, it it?
She was 14 in this one and just 3 years later was the romantic lead in Hitchcock’s Young and Innocent so she did look old for her age.
I’m not surprised that you prefer this one. If you don’t like Shirley, I can just imagine how you feel about Doris Day!
I didn’t know she was that young……she looked older or may be just rather odd looking.
Doris Day?…….she’s alright. I really liked her in “Midnight Lace” but I may be the only one who thought she was good. “I’m going to kill you, Mrs. Preston”.
I’ll have to catch up with Midnight Lace. I really liked Doris Day in The Pajama Game but other times she’s a bit too earnest for my taste. Shirley just let me down in another one of the many movies she made in 1934 … or maybe it’s the movie that let me down. Stay tuned.