dif1959

This is a good Hitchcock film, but on the lighter side. The acting may be disputed (certainly many dispute about it!), but in my opinion it is a very solid, entertaining, and well-acted picture. It does have much of Hitchcock about it (not surprisingly) and is well worth watching. All of the classic Hitchcock elements are there, and they fit together wonderfully: the musical score, the camera work, the twists and turns in the plot, the thrilling scenes, the build-up, the director himself ... and not to forget the story! This is built up very carefully, and contains many, many interesting side-glances and elements. But one needs to watch the film very carefully, or more than once, in order to find these. It is indeed a sort of '39 Steps', and a precursor to several later Hitchcock films, but in its own way it occupies a place rather different than any other Hitchcock film. I am referring to a certain 'bucolic' atmosphere, which is perhaps only equalled by 'The Trouble With Harry'. The parallels to this film have perhaps not yet been adequately explored.

I had naturally heard of this film - many years ago, when it first came out. I first saw it very recently on DVD, 32 years (!) after its release, and can only say that this is a classic. The plot is well put together, there is more than enough suspense and emotion to keep things rolling very nicely indeed, and the acting is superb. The photography is also worth a mention - very interesting and it contributes strongly to the film's effect. The film is sentimental on some levels, but refreshingly down to earth on others. This makes for a powerful combination of comedy and a little tragedy, as well as giving the characters real room to develop. No wonder Tatum O'Neal won an Oscar. She deserved it.

I cannot agree with most of the comments here. Any film version of a Holmes story is going to be a problem - why pick on this one? After all, something of the rather pointed (sometimes uncomfortable) sarcasm of the literary Holmes comes through. No performance is seriously bad in this film; Frewer comes over well, so do the rest. I sometimes wonder if affection for certain film portrayals rather overrides the accuracy of the story - this one was not the worst by a long shot. Utter accuracy is not probable in the film world, so we should, I think, not be all too picky. Even so, the flavour of the stories is one which no director has ever captured, I admit. This film goes some way towards rectifying the matter.