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The kinship is to Rich and Strange's comedy of marriage, espionage matters are swept along accordingly with screwball speed. Death and resurrection during the War ca. 1916, the casket in the funeral parlor is empty, the British Army Captain (John Gielgud) receives a new identity from an officer known as "R" (Charles Carson). "Do you love your country?" "Well, I just died for it." The mission concerns Palestine by way of Switzerland, off to the Alps to join two fellow agents: The thrill-seeker (Madeleine Carroll) posing as his wife, and the cheerful assassin (Peter Lorre) variously dubbed "The Hairless Mexican" and "The General." The enigmatic integer is the jaunty Yank in a tux (Robert Young) who dips in and out of the intrigue. "Pardon me while the brain reels." One of Alfred Hitchcock's most offbeat compositions, richly attuned to the odd couple of strapping enunciator and squat malapropist. "You prepare, me finish," thus the suggestive centerpiece—the killer and the would-be German foe (Percy Marmont) as two tiny figures on the edge of the icy abyss, the iris-encircled vantage point from a distant telescope, then one tiny figure. The monotone hum of church music that turns out to be a corpse slumped over the organ, the deafening tolling of a bell that dollies in for close-ups of lips and ears (Juno and the Paycock), the unforgettable howling of a masterless dachshund. Fire alarms and clamoring crowds at the chocolate factory anticipate Torn Curtain, and there's a similar darkening of the fun of spy games. "Somehow, I don't like murder in such close quarters as much as I expected..." The climax aboard the train to Constantinople looks back at Lang's Spione, and ahead to Leone's Duck, You Sucker. With Lilli Palmer, Florence Kahn, and Michael Redgrave. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |