Part one here
Part two here
Continuing to watch Hitchcock's movies in reverse order of release, I watched: "Vertigo" (1958), "The Wrong Man" (1956), "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956) and "The Trouble with Harry" (1955). That's the movies in reverse order of release for you, but below, as in previous entries, I will be reviewing these four in reverse order of preference.
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
This was sweeter than a lot of Hitchcock's films and I think that was possibly part of the appeal. This is essentially a 'farce'.
The film begins with a man wandering around doing a bit of hunting. He soon comes across a dead body and realises that he is now guilty of manslaughter. He comes to the decision that he would be better off hiding the body rather than reporting the death. Now, in any of the other Hitchcock movies I'm reviewing in this entry, this would most likely become a source of all-consuming guilt for the rest of the film, yet in "The Trouble With Harry" we can tell this is not going to play out how you'd expect when the first other character this man meets seems to agree very pleasantly about keeping the authorities ignorant of the matter.
There are a number of characters who interact in this film and they all seem to get fairly equal treatment. Every one of them is a joy to spend time with and there's no over-dramatic and awestruck blonde such as Hitchcock seems fond of in some of his other films.
I found this film massively entertaining and it really put a smile on my face. It's not one of Hitchcock's more serious films neither in its content or the way that content is approached. Still there's no doubting that this was well paced, well scripted and, at times, absolutely hilarious.
A-
The Wrong Man (1956)
In the first half of the film this is absolutely fascinating. Hitchcock appears at the beginning of the film to explain that this is a true story and, in spite of my instincts, it turns out that he's really not kidding.
The staff at the bank become convinced that the main protagonist came in and robbed them at gunpoint earlier in the year. The police quickly take the protagonist down to the station for questioning. Their mode of questioning struck me as quite unorthodox and their method of identifying whether or not he was the culprit was particularly worrying in the light of more modern methods.
On top of this we have Hitchcock's wonderful little tricks to get us fully into the head of this nerve-wracked police suspect. As he is charged and his date for trial is set, he is understandably completely terrified and Hitchcock makes sure we feel as much of the protagonist's discomfort as possible.
In the second half another element of the story, which I shall not spoil, affects the protagonist's wife in particular. During this development, the wife has a scene where she becomes quite hysterical and while it is somewhat intentional, the style of acting in that scene is very dated and I found it really pulled me out of the film. Also, this new development rather hogs the limelight in the second half. Sure the elements surrounding the trial aren't entirely clear cut, but the second half simply isn't as interesting as the initial arrest.
OVerall this film has an absolutely fantastic first half and a pretty good overall plot, but in the second half the pacing becomes and issue, the story ceases to be so compelling, and an unfortunate bit of dated 'hysterical woman' acting in one scene left me laughing when I should have been left shaking.
I also reckon it was most likely the producers who insisted on the ultra-happy ending. A quick wiki reveals that the film ends rather more happily than the real life story. Though interestingly another difference from real life was that the real life police had rather more more clues that the central character was innocent which Hitchcock purposely fails to include.
With some improvements to the second half this film could have been a lot better. As it is, I'm inclined to switch it off after the half way mark. The central performance is fantastic and the direction in the first half represents Hitchcock on top form, but unfortunately the second half is not handled anything like so well.
C+
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
I'm generally trying to watch these films in directly reverse order, so the first of these films that I saw was "Vertigo". It was in the light of my experience of "Vertigo" that I came to watch this earlier Hitchcock film also starring James Stewart. James Stewart was (so I understand) originally known best for comedic performances, but in these films he seems to be playing characters with a darker edge.
I think this is an early enough event for me to reveal. James Stewart's character feeds his wife a tranquiliser before revealing what was to be the shocking central premise of the film to her. He does this so that she cannot do anything in response. He takes away her choice to act upon the shocking news he reveals. That's a pretty douchey thing to do to your wife and I didn't think it was even remotely justified.
The central premise is this: James Stewart and Doris Day are man and wife visiting Morocco with their son. Over the course of events James Stewart has some important information revealed to him about an assasination plot, but other figures who know that this information was passed to him force his silence by kidnapping his son. (And it is the news that their son has been kidnapped that James Stewart insists on revealing to his wife after incapacitating her.)
The first half is pretty well built up, but in the second half we are supposed to somehow imagine that these two characters can solve everything themselves. I not only wasn't convinced, but was quite confused as to why they were convinced. After an opening where they appear to feel entirely powerless, suddenly they think they can solve a kidnapping case better than Scotland Yard. I mean seriously?
Doris Day is playing one of these over-dramatic blonde characters Hitchcock sometimes employs and the character seems unable to do anything much that is proactive without it involving a scream, tears or a tantrum.
Towards the end we have a kidnapper who suddenly decides that kidnapping was a bad idea (because presumably We're supposed to recognise her as a weak woman who doesn't have the stomach for it, of course *groan*).
Not to give away too much of the actual plot surrounding this, there's a suggestion within the film that a particularly loud part of an orchestral performance would drown out the sound of a gunshot. I suppose this is just something you are supposed to accept, but in context I was never really able to suspend my disbelief on this point.
The film is sweet and silly, but I found James Stewart's protagonist still carried the same unpleasantness I felt in "Vertigo" and that much of the plot never really pulled me in. As much as I wasn't wholly keen on "Frenzy", it at least had rather more scenes that successfully pulled me in.
D-
Vertigo (1958)
Not just my least favourite out of this set of four, but actually my least favourite out of all Hitchcock's films so far. I actively disliked this film.
First of all we have a rather dodgy relationship between James Stewart and a woman who claims to be possessed by a dead spirit. This is quite an elaborate idea and involves this blonde leading lady becoming dramatically overcome by emotion. Later on, her consistent passivity as a character becomes more and more at odds with her situation. (And I can't really think of a much clearer way to put this without spoilers, so if that doesn't make sense feel free to ask more in the comments.)
As the plot unfurls James Stewart's character appears increasingly unpleasant, yet I never had the impression that the film wanted us to dislike him.
Also the theme of vertigo itself seems oddly handled. James Stewart has some nightmares around the halfway mark which make use of this theme, but it felt rather self-indulgent to me. Hitchcock clearly wants to play with vertigo-related imagery, but the plot never seems to be able to fully justify it. The attempt to make the audience feel the vertigo seems by my reckoning to be a flawed experiment.
We also have one of the most unrealistic trials I've ever seen on film when the magistrate unrelentingly mocks James Stewart for his choices and his phobia. If this was supposed to be emphasised because it was from James Stewart's point of view, perhaps it could have been placed inside the nightmare sequence. As it is, I just found my suspension of disbelief confounded as a voice in my head consistently shouted: "the magistrate wouldn't say that! The defence should be yelling 'objection' now... and now... and now!"
The plot in general is extremely convoluted and the ending, oh dear me, the ending...
As is often the case, the blonde flakey love interest is contrasted by a much more sensible (and generally more endearing) brunette figure. In this movie, however, the brunette is annoyingly not only left on the sidelines but at one point actually disappears from the film entirely. She is never seen again in spite of unfinished plot threads concerning her character. (The filmsack podcast has come to refer to this trope as the "chick in a bucket", though I suspect it is on the tv tropes website somewhere with another name. But normally the "chick in a bucket" is a character who disappears without the audience noticing, whereas this brunette figure's absence is highly noticeable.)
My expectations were perhaps a little more raised than normal as a result of the recent surfacing of this film at the top of the "Sight and Sound" best movie list. But I think I'd be just as harsh in my condemnation regardless. There's something distinctly unpolished about the film as a whole. It was straight after seeing this that I decided to re-watch "Psycho" and the contrast was absolutely astounding. There's absolutely no comparison. Psycho is a pioneering masterpiece while Vertigo is a dull, unpleasant and generally flawed experiment.
E-
Ranking of all Hitchcock's movies reviewed so far:
1. North By Northwest (1959) A+
2. Psycho (1960) A+
3. The Birds (1963) A+
4. The Trouble with Harry (1955) A-
5. Topaz (1969) B+
6. The Wrong Man (1956) C+
7. Family Plot (1976) C+
8. Frenzy (1972) D+
9. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) D-
10. Torn Curtain (1966) D-
11. Marnie (1964) E-
12. Vertigo (1958) E-