A classic

Since I'm a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock, of course, I was really eager to check this out. At first, I was wondering where the whole thing was getting to (I never read beforehand what a movie is about) and, during the first scenes, I thought it would be some kind of farce. Eventually, I understood that the hotel sequence was actually there only to establish all those peculiar characters. Indeed, the real action was to take place later on, on the train. There, it became one of those spellbinding thrillers that only Hitchcock could make back then more than 70 years ago. It was just fascinating to see this woman getting back to her seat and asking where was this old lady who simply vanished. I mean, this has been copied so many times through the years, it was just pretty neat to see Hitchcock's own version. Another fascinating aspect was the total lack of music. Indeed, music is usually a key element in your typical thriller and it constantly underlines the action, telling when you should pay attention, when you should be scared and it is usually quite effective but also really intrusive. Here, since there is no music queue, you are left alone wondering which emotions you should feel and I thought it was a great approach. To conclude, even though it might not be one of his many masterpieces, it still is a very good thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

8/10