Hitchcock Week: Murder!

Greetings film fans and movie goers.  I would like to talk to you about…murder.  Well to be more accurate I would like to talk about Alfred Hitchcock’s portrayal of such.  The man who brought us the key plot element or elements that is referred as: the MacGuffin.  That important element or plot device that is crucial in Act 1; but is never specifically declared how vital it truly is.  The need to make the camera to travel as though the viewer was actually in the room witnessing all that is happening with a neck movement.  With that notion I ask you to turn off your mobile devices, don’t talk through the movie and please pick up your trash after the viewing.  This is Murder!.

 

It's a frameup, see? A fix! A rig!

Spoilers ought to be ashamed of themselves, kicking up all that racket at this time of night.

Based on the novel and play Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson, director Alfred Hitchcock shows us how quickly the human animal can turn on one another very succinctly with this film as a young actress Diana Baring (Norah Baring of Escape from Dartmoor, Two Worlds, Mystery at the Villa Rose, The Lyons Mail and The House of Trent) from a traveling theatre troupe is found, dizzy, confused and with blood up and down her clothes standing over the body of another young actress.  She claims to have no memory of the crime that was committed and police automatically assume some sort of rivalry and arrest her on the spot.  Diana is hoisted off the station where she is then interrogated for several hours.   The police feel she is holding back key information that is essential to the case but they feel they have enough for a positive case so on to the kangaroo court with her!

Beg yer pardon, milord but what is an executive transvestite?

  

As the jury box is almost certain this was a case of petty jealousy gone too far and one or two of them feel she is mentally deranged, a juror, Sir John Menier (Herbert Marshall of Till We Meet Again, A Woman Rebels, Angel, Breakfast for Two and Mad About Music) seems confident that she is in fact innocent but is harassed into voting guilty along with the rest of the jury.   Diana is shanghaied to the hoosegow and waits to be hung…by the neck until she is dead, dead, dead!!!!   

 

Sir John feels awful, having recommended the traveling troupe to Diana so she may enjoy some of life’s experiences feels compelled to prove her innocence and with the aid of stage manager Ted Markham (Edward Chapman of Things to Come, X: The Unknown and Champion House) and his wife Doucie (Phyllis Konstam of Champagne, Escape, The Skin Game, A Gentleman of Paris and The Forgotten Factor) to re-examine the evidence and find the true culprit of this heinous act.    Will they find our killer and if so will it be in time?

 

Must remain British and bland...ahh much better.

I have just a few technical aspects of the film to share.  Shot in 35 mm Spherical Black and White and of course recorded in mono this film was recently restored and remastered prints for DVD by Lionsgate Home Entertainment in 2007.   This was also Hitchcock’s third talkie film after Blackmail and Juno and the Paycock.   You get a feel of clever moments throughout the movie but you can also get the feeling that the script is dated and the modern movie goer must be in that mindset to enjoy but enjoy it you shall.