An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I’m a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I wasn’t really impressed by the damned thing after all. Indeed, they took a very generic story and, to make things worse, they told it in the dullest way possible. Basically, it was dealing with a lawyer falling in love with his client even if she might be guilty after all which was obviously nothing original whatsoever but it was rather surprising that pretty much nothing interesting or surprising happened through the whole thing. Apparently, the first cut delivered by Hitchcock was almost 3 hrs and maybe this version might have better worked but, then, it was cut several times by David O. Selznick and it is clear that something was missing with the final version. It’s too bad because there was actually a solid cast involved. I was especially intrigued by Alida Valli who was such a perfect choice to play this character but, unfortunately, she was given so little to do after all. It's a shame because Valli had such a fascinating screen presence but her character was basically sulking through the whole duration and not much else. It was a similar issue with Gregory Peck who was also a perfect choice to play this lawyer but you might wonder why this guy fell in love so fast with this woman he barely knew. Sure, you could argue that it was maybe a case of love at first sight but they could have developed more their relationship. However, it was even worse with Louis Jourdan who played his character as if he was constantly constipated. At least, the characters played by Ann Todd, Charles Laughton and Joan Tetzel did work but they were all some rather minor characters. Anyway, to conclude, it was definitely a minor effort from the great master but I still think it is worth a look, at least, if you are really interested in Alfred Hitchcock's work.