In his early American thriller, director Alfred Hitchcock crosses the nation from California to New York as a wholly unappealling lead – Robert Cummings – must prove his innocence of wartime sabotage.
Check the narrative against The 39 Steps and you will see an all too familiar storyline as Cummings hooks up with the suspicious Priscilla Lane to help him in his case. It’s all a somewhat turgid, unconvincing tale – surprising considering both Suspicion and Rebecca were the film’s immediate predecessors.
Rating: 46%
Director: Alfred Hitchcock (Rear Window, Psycho)
Writer: Peter Viertel (Roughshod, We Were Strangers), Joan Harrison (Rebecca, Foreign Correspondent), Dorothy Parker (A Star is Born, Smash Up: the Story of a Woman)
Main cast: Robert Cummings (Kings Row, Dial M For Murder), Priscilla Lane (Arsenic & Old Lace, Four Daughters), Otto Kruger (High Noon, Murder My Sweet)
An Opinion or Two 